Genius of the Uzumaki Clan
by Morpheus The Dream Lord
Summary: Whenever one thinks of the Uzumaki clan, they picture a bunch of loud red heads that can draw really well, not a quiet blonde with a mind so sharp that it could cut steel. Born nearly a century early, during the era of the Warring States, how will this one small detail change all that is known about the shinobi world?
1. Chapter 1

Whenever someone of their profession thought of the Uzumaki clan, they always envisioned a clan filled to the brim with red heads that had impeccable writing and a knack for outliving everyone that didn't share their bloodline.

While most of that was true, but as the old age adage goes, _there's an exception to every rule_. Uzumaki Naruto was the exception to the rule this time around. Born prematurely with blonde hair instead of the famous Uzumaki red, and with a quieter outlook on life than most of them, he was the quintessential black sheep of the clan.

Just because he looked and acted differently from most of the Uzumaki, did not mean that they treated him differently. There was an ongoing joke among most of the clans in the shinobi world that the Uzumaki were a bunch of hippies.

One would think that they would abhor such a title, given how the world they lived in valued strength and power which – were achieved through violence – terrible violence, over love, but the Uzumaki did not care. They didn't abhor their nickname, but rather adored it. Embraced it. Strove to prove that they could live up to it, despite being a clan of killers by profession.

Uzumaki Naruto, despite being different to them in appearance and attitude, was treated like any other Uzumaki.

His different appearance may have been instantaneous, visible from birth, but his attitude was something that expressed itself over time. His parents started noticing it when he was just at the tender age of four.

It was during a simple trip to buy groceries at a nearby market place, where Naruto's mother, Kushina, a red haired woman that exuded beauty similar to that of goddess, had taken Naruto to get acquainted with the world. They had just passed a small stand that sold toys, and she had the bright idea of getting Naruto a toy.

When she had asked him which one he wanted from the plethora of toys that were on display, he replied with a simple, "That one." pointing at a blue yo-yo that was next to a blunt plastic kunai and a wood figurine.

Him picking a yo-yo was normal, after all it was a childish toy; but it was what he did with it that completely caught his mother off-guard. While most children would immediately try to play with a yo-yo by doing different things with it, like biting it, throwing it into the air or even twisting it to see if there was something hidden within it, Naruto did not.

He, instead, looked at it while his mother paid the vendor the amount necessary to purchase the yo-yo, noticed that it had a string that had a loop at the end of it, and quickly stuck his finger in said loop. After that, he took the yo-yo and dropped it, watching in all the avid curiosity that a four-year old had, as the yo-yo stopped short of hitting the ground before it jumped back into the air, almost as if it was begging to return to his hand.

He complied with the inanimate object's silent request and caught it. It was at this time that Kushina turned around, expecting her son to have thrown the yo-yo onto the ground in an attempt to see how it worked. She was instead greeted by a sight she had not expected. Her little boy was calmly playing with the yo-yo as it should be played with, launching it at the ground, before pulling it back into his hand. She watched him do this for about a minute, unsure of how she should process what she was seeing.

She was by no means an expert at parenting, Naruto's first twelve months could attest to that; but even she knew that no four year old could play with a yo-yo properly.

She quickly came out of her stupor, and deciding to talk to Naruto's father about it. She quickly left the market, her son in tow, along with the yo-yo that had his undivided attention.

That night, Naruto's parents discussed the possibilities of what this meant for Naruto. His father, Minato, being a civilian, did not see things the way that Kushina did. To him, this was nothing special. His son was just gifted with the yo-yo. There were plenty of children, the world over, that were gifted at something from a young age, even murder.

Kushina, who was a shinobi by profession, had been trained to see past what normal people could, and to her this was a sign, a sign that her child was special.

The next case of Naruto's speciality making itself known was the very next day. His mother had come to his room to wake him up, but as soon as she entered his room she witnessed something that shocked her more than what she had seen the previous day.

Her son was sitting on his bed, cross-legged, and he was performing tricks she had never seen before, with the yo-yo she had bought him. He would throw it at the ceiling, before sticking out a finger from his left hand, using that finger to poke the string that held the yo-yo, which would result in the yo-yo's course being shifted to the left, before he would start spinning it anti-clockwise, in an almost hypnotising manner.

After that he stood up, on his bed, and started spinning it around his body almost as if he were dancing with it. He treated it like it was his dance partner, performing tricky dance moves that no one with just a single day's experience with a yo-yo should be able to perform.

Suffice to say that when his father found out about it, he reversed his previous statement. His wife had been right all along. _His son was definitely special_.

While the discovery of Naruto's speciality had come at a relatively young age for his parents, it took those outside of his home a slightly longer period of time to discover it. A few years to be exact.

While most clans sent their children out to war at just the tender age of six years, the Uzumaki did not. They instead chose to only start _sending their children to school_ at that age. Their schooling programme lasted a few years, during which a child is taught how to be literate, how to think properly, and of course, seeing as how this was a world embroiled in warfare, they taught their children how to kill.

Because of this, Uzumaki children had the highest first mission survival rate out of all clans in the world. Their children entered war at the age of twelve, which was an age where they could properly act as shinobi.

However this came with an adverse effect of making their twelve year olds less experienced than those of the other clans. Children that were twelve in most clans were already considered veterans, due to how they had already fought in a lot of battles and had lived to tell their tales.

When Naruto entered the Academy, as the Uzumaki liked to call their school, he was six years old. He only stayed in it for two years.

During the first couple of weeks of his tenure in Uzu no Kuni's Academy, Naruto seemed like a completely normal child, one that they had already seen before a hundred times over. He just happened to have the noticeable trait of blonde hair and a very quiet attitude, one he would discover, he had garnered from his father.

As the weeks turned to months however, it became apparent that Naruto was anything but ordinary. At first, whenever he would finish a test ahead of all of his classmates or answer questions when asked, his instructors thought it was just pure coincidence.

"Maybe he studied before hand." that was the general consensus.

But, as time went by, it soon became apparent that it was far from being luck or coincidence that he knew what was being asked.

"What is the most sure fire way to achieve victory in battle?" that was a question that had been asked by one of his instructors. He had asked the entire class of twenty, intending to see how these six year old children would react. He had expected answers such as _being the strongest_ or a _good strategy_. Children always gave those two answers.

"There is none." Naruto stated, while drawing something on a piece of paper, never really looking up at his teacher. If he had, he would have seen the shocked expression the man displayed.

What Naruto said had been absolutely on the money. There was no sure fire way to win a battle because every battle was different. Most kids knew this by the time they graduated, not immediately after entering the Academy.

The instructor walked up to Naruto, to see what he was doing, and upon seeing what it was that the boy was doing, he was left in a state of great shock. The instructor saw Naruto's drawing, which was a design of a yo-yo that could protruded sharp spikes while spinning.

This was to be the first weapon the boy designed.

After that day, the instructor spread the word amongst his colleges about Naruto's genius, and they all took notice of it soon after. Test were administered to the boy, and he passed them all without even trying.

While most Uzumaki were considered to be smarter than the average person, due to how they could master the most complex of the shinobi arts, Fūinjutsu, they were still considered to be the intellectual inferior of the Nara clan that resided within Hi no Kuni.

Naruto was an Uzumaki with a Nara's brain.

"What do you do for fun?" that was a question that had been asked by one of the children he went to school with.

"I study and practice." had been Naruto's answer.

Naturally word of his genius intellect spread across the entire island like wildfire, and pretty soon even kids his own age caught wind of it. They started hanging out with him more than they did before in hopes of having his genius rub off on them. Unfortunately for them, that was not how things worked. You either have it or you don't.

Also unfortunate, for Naruto, was that the other children only did this during school hours. After school he became a complete stranger to them. He quickly learned a valuable lesson through these kids. In their world, it was either use or be used.

Fast forwarding past a few more tests, which saw Naruto get bumped up to different classes in a matter of moths, he soon found himself taking an IQ test that resulted in him being diagnosed with a genius-level intellect greater than any eight year old Nara that had ever come into existence. It was also immediately after this test that it was made apparent that Naruto had learned all that he could from the Academy, bar killing, and he was completely bored.

"We would like to personally train him." that was a statement uttered by a man named Uzumaki Jin, the head of their clan. He had heard of Naruto's special intelligence, and as such he had become interested in him. He had come over to Naruto's parents personally, in order to ask for permission to train him.

Well, it wasn't really a matter that was up for debate, and Naruto's parents knew it. When your clan leader wanted something from you, you did it, regardless of how you felt about it. Not doing so would be seen as an act of insubordination. And everybody knew what that meant for you. Death.

Regardless though, Kushina was a proud woman that had built a reputation as a hot-blooded individual, and this made itself apparent almost immediately when she decided to throw caution to the wind and say, "Why? What do you intend to do with my son?"

There was no way in hell she would allow her boy to suddenly be thrust into the heat of battle without proper training, or before he hit the required age within their clan. She would not allow him to become an exception to the general consensus.

"Do not worry, Kushina." Ginrei said, stroking his white beard like the truly ancient person that he was. He had accompanied his son, Jin, to speak with Kushina, "Naruto will not leave the island before the age of twelve, just like everyone else."

"Then why do you want to personally train my son?" this time it was Minato that had asked, proving that he had a backbone despite not being a shinobi.

"Because we see in Naruto something that we haven't see in anyone else for a very long time." Ginrei said cryptically.

"And that is?" Minato asked once more, feeling his irritation rising. He didn't like how Ginrei was dancing around the issue of what they wanted with his son.

"Possibility." Ginrei said, beard stroking over for now, "In Naruto we see the possibility of taking our clan further than where we are. We do not want to make him a weapon, far from it. We want to make him an symbol of peace."

"Peace, Huh?" Minato said with a large frown on his face, "By turning him into a force of destruction and masquerading it as peace?"

"No -" whatever else that Jin was going to say died in his throat when Minato slammed his hand onto the wooden table that they sat in.

"Damn you! You shinobi don't know anything about peace! You go around murdering people, not giving a damn about the innocents that get caught in the way, and you go around preaching peace! My wife murders people for a living! And now you want to make my son a murderer too?!" Minato's voice had risen to new heights that seemed uncontrollable. His voice was shaking as he spoke to the clan leader and his predecessor.

His wife's soft, and also very warm, hand was all it took to calm him down. She simply placed it on top of his raging fist and his anger was immediately quelled.

She understood his pain, she really did. She didn't want her only child to become a murderer at a young age, but this was just the terrible, cruel reality of the world that they lived in.

"Just -" Minato began, stepping out of the chair he sat in, "Just make sure that he at least has one friend. Kami-sama knows he needs those."

With that, the trio of Uzumaki warriors watched Minato walk out of the kitchen with his head held low, knowing very well that there was nothing he could do about his son's situation. They were all sure that he wished that he was different. Not stupid, but significantly less intellectual than he was right now.

That way, they would never have had to deal with the bullshit that they were dealt with right now.

The Uzumaki leader and his father left not longer after, already making preparations to have Naruto move in with them. He would train with the head family during the week, but be able to visit his family during the weekend. It was a stipulation that Kushina had set, one that they had no problem maintaining.

To them, mainly Jin, Naruto was someone that was worth any ridiculous stipulation.

* * *

Chapter One: A genius is born

* * *

Soft blades of grass were unexpectedly fattened when a blonde haired boy walked over them. An eight year old Naruto was currently walking towards a large house. One which, for the last two centuries, has housed the main family of the Uzumaki clan. The house was majestic, looking like a very traditional castle, with an air of pure authority to it.

Just looking at it, one knew that they were stepping on important grounds. Grounds nearly as important as the temple located at the centre of the village.

Naruto walked on the extraordinarily large front lawn of the mansion, marveling at it with eyes the size of saucers, with his beige bag slung attached to his back. Upon stepping onto the patio of the massive mansion, Naruto felt his muscles suddenly locking in place, his nerves not really being able to transmit the message his brain was trying to convey to his limbs.

Move.

It was a simple command, one which his body just couldn't catch up to. It was as if someone had turned his body into that of a puppet. The more he commanded his body to move, the more it seemed to disobey him. In fact, it almost seemed as if it was giving him the middle finger and going the extra mile in disobedience by disposing of his chakra.

'Wait! The body doesn't just disobey you and start releasing chakra unless if there's been a jutsu cast on you!' Naruto thought. If one were to take a peek into his shiny blue orbs that he had inherited from his father, they would see that he was panicking. A lot.

'Calm down!' He silently told himself, 'Think! Focus on where the chakra is being syphoned off to, so that you can stop it.'

He slowed his breathing down, calming himself so that he could think. Upon doing so, he was able to immediately notice that his chakra was due south.

His eyes were the only thing that could move, and he had to concentrate really hard on looking down. Naruto noticed a sealing matrix that was large enough to encompass the entire patio. At least, according to his peripheral vision, because it went on beyond it on either side.

'How do I get rid of that?!' Only his eyes could move. And that wasn't good. From all of the knowledge he had obtained so far with regards to Fūinjutsu and how to dispose of it if you are ever trapped in one, you needed to at least have some mobility. He had none. That was not good!

"You know…" a gravely, masculine voice said from the sidelines, drawing Naruto's eyes to it, "every jutsu has a weakness."

Naruto looked at the man, and he saw an old man that had a white beard that reached just below his clavicle. He had white hair that was tied into a ponytail, and he was decked in a grey outfit under a dull red armour.

The man looked at Naruto, and the look that was directed at the blonde-haired boy indicated that the old man was expecting him to break the seal. Naruto's eyes shifted away from the old man and looked at the mansion's paper doors. Looking to do exactly what the old man was quietly suggesting, Naruto focused on his chakra.

He felt the torrent that ran in between his bones and veins that represented his chakra flow in one direction, south. Knowing that he had a tough task ahead of him, he started trying to change its flow.

It wasn't easy, but after a minute of pure concentration, Naruto slowly started to feel his chakra change direction, heading south east before it went east completely. After that, he shifted it west, before taking it up north, focusing the flow to his brain.

Then he stopped focusing on his chakra flowing in a controlled manner and started making it flow in all directions in a very undignified manner. It sauntered all over his chakra coils, making them burn up slightly, and drawing a sweat from him.

This exercise was exhausting him, as the more he did it, the faster the seal attached to his feet worked.

He felt his heart beat increase, drawing a hyperventilated breath of air out of his lungs.

'When will this -'

And then his legs moved forward…

'- End?!'

…and then he shot forward like a bullet – one travelling at a very slow speed of less than ten kilometres an hour – and he shot through the paper screen of the Uzumaki clan's main house.

"Hahahaha…" Naruto inwardly groaned while he slowly picked himself off the ground, pushing a thin sheet with wood attached to it off of him, which clattered on the ground when it struck the wooden floorboards of the house, before he slowly exited the hole he had just made.

Looking at the old man that was laughing at his expense, Naruto looked really annoyed.

"I'm glad that my misery is amusing to you." Naruto said bitterly.

"Hahahaha… oh, it was very amusing actually. And also quite insightful." the elderly Uzumaki said.

"Oh?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms in the process, "How so?"

"You have very good control of your chakra." the old man began, drawing a raised eyebrow out of Naruto, "What you were trapped in is a mass scale paralysis seal. It actually surrounds the entire house. And the only way to get out of one is with properly controlled chakra fluctuations that go against the seal. "

Awe. That was what Naruto experienced at that moment. It immediately made sense to him as to why it was there.

"I'm guessing that it's meant to keep intruders at bay?" Naruto let his thoughts be known.

"Yes, it is. Quite perceptive for someone your age." the old man said.

"My father always said that one should always hope for the best, but prepare for the worst." Naruto said in a sagely manner, completely unfitting of an eight year old.

"Ah, I see. Going by what you said, then that means that you know who I am."

"Hai. You're Ginrei-sama."

The old man, Ginrei, nodded his head at the boy, before he slowly started stroking his beard. He liked the boy. Honestly, he did. He had a good head on his shoulders. He seemed respectable, and judging by how he reacted throughout the whole ordeal involving the paralysis seal, a very calm individual.

"Do you want to know what I know about you?" Ginrei said to the boy.

"There's no point in saying no, even though a part of me wants to. So I will just say yes." Naruto answered rather cheekily, showing his immaturity.

'He can see through the way words are used. A good head for politics.'

"You name is Naruto. You like ramen, you hate vegetables. You also happen to be a very smart kid, graduating early from our academy. You reportedly have chakra reserves equal to those of a seasoned shinobi who's fifteen, while also having immaculate control over it." Ginrei said, pausing to swallow some spittle.

"Don't all Uzumaki have large pools of chakra?" Naruto asked. As far as he knew, he was nothing special when it came to chakra quantity.

"True, we do have large chakra pools. But the comparison was made with a fifteen year old Uzumaki in mind, not someone from another clan." Ginrei said, drawing a shocked look from the boy.

"How do you know this? I didn't know that it was possible to measure one's chakra quantity." Naruto said quickly, unfurling his arms and walking away from the hole he made.

The old man did not say much. He instead pointed down, causing the boy he was with to look where he was pointing.

"The paralysis seal that you were ensnared in is one of my own designs. It ensnares one in a powerful binding spell, before it slowly starts sucking out your chakra, that way by the time you figure out how to disable it, you won't have enough chakra to do so." Ginrei said, "You were caught in it for four minutes, ten seconds, which is just how long a twelve year old Uzumaki would last before he or she actually collapsed from chakra exhaustion."

Naruto nodded his head at the beard stroking man, indicating that he understood what he said.

"You appear to have barely felt the drain on your reserves. Let me ask you a question, Naruto…"

Once again, Naruto nodded his head at the man. This time though, it was a means of telling him to proceed.

"Do you know why our clan sends children out to battle only after they have reached the age of twelve?" Ginrei asked.

"No." Naruto shook his head, "I only know that you do it so that we, as the children of the clan, can have normal childhoods free of violence. But I'm guessing that is not the true reason why."

Ginrei stopped his beard stroking for a moment, mesmerised by the fact that the boy seemed intelligent enough to guess that the reason that they always dished out in their public service announcements, with regards to early graduation, was really just a farce. He didn't know how, but he could see through the thinly veiled lie the clan had constructed.

'Very perceptive indeed.'

"You're right. The real reason, which I'm not supposed to be telling you due to you being under age, but I will do so anyway because you seem like someone that won't go around spouting what I'm going to say to the general public, is that a shinobi's chakra grows exponentially when they hit puberty. So that means that you can get taught things, more advanced techniques, as you grow older. Which also means that that is when you have the biggest growth spurt as a shinobi. If you don't take advantage of it then, then it will definitely go to waste." Ginrei said, stroking his beard once more while looking at the hole Naruto made.

Naruto, meanwhile, had one simple, yet very confusing question rolling around in his head.

"What's puberty?"

Suffice to say that Ginrei wished he had not told Naruto one of the clan's secrets.

* * *

A - very awkward - few minutes later

* * *

Naruto, after being told what he would be going through in a few years time – minus the explicit details about coitus – now found himself in the Uzumaki clan's main house's lounge. He was told by Ginrei to wait there, and he did. Ginrei, despite exuding an air of authority, seemed like he was a fun loving person.

Naruto came to this conclusion after they had used the hole he had made in the screen as an entrance into the house. When Naruto had asked him why they hadn't used the normal entrance, he replied with a simple, "What's wrong with the door that you just made?"

So yes, judging by those words, the old man seemed like a bit of a rebel, which honestly wasn't what Naruto had expected when he got to know the elder Uzumaki a bit. According to what Naruto had read up on the man – yes, Ginrei was so important that he had written text talking about him – he was a child prodigy, so gifted in Fūinjutsu that he surpassed his father, the greatest at the time, at just the age of twenty, which was a record.

He was the one that had come up with the academy system, choosing to find a place where a lot of Uzumaki children could be taught at the same time, thus making sure that they were all more-or-less around the same skill level.

His mind was so sharp that he was dubbed _Ginrei the wise_.

With all of these things in mind, he had expected someone that was stoic, like most clan leaders were – at least that is what he had heard through the grapevine; clan leaders were notorious stoic. He didn't expect to find a man that seemed carefree, who seemingly had a sense of humour while also able to exude power and authority like it was child's play. Which, Naruto concluded, probably was for the man.

" …the lounge." Naruto heard Ginrei shout from somewhere within the house. He heard footsteps coming from the hallway that was to the right hand side of the lounge when you exited it, and he focused his attention onto the entrance that lead to and from the hall.

The footsteps grew louder and louder, heightening Naruto's sense of anticipation for whoever was running towards him. He was a kid that had only recently discovered what puberty was, he couldn't help feeling anxious, genius or not.

His anxiety came to an end when the person that had been running in the hall came to a screeching halt at the entry way. Purple stared at blue. Red buns were parallel with golden yellow spikes. Tanned skin contorted to match its pale counterpart.

And then there was a smile. A megawatt smile that showed of a set of pearly whites.

"You're Naruto, Right?" the girl said to him.

"Yeah…" Naruto said, drawing out his response as if he was not really being sure that was his name.

"Great!" the girl with the megawatt smile smile said, clapping her pale hands together in a cheerful manner, "I'm Mito."

Naruto was quiet for a few seconds, not really sure about how he should proceed.

 _Make sure to always be respectful to the main family._

His mother's words rang in his head, and immediately after that he said, "Oh, um, it's a pleasure to meet you, Mito-sama."

Naruto bowed his head when he said this, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Mito.

"Uh, why are you bowing at me?" Mito asked him, and when Naruto looked at her after bowing his head, he noticed that she was looking at him like he had grown a second head.

"I'm being respectful towards you, Mito-sama." Naruto said, a bit unsure of himself.

"Huh?" Mito tilted her head slightly, looking at the boy that seemed to be around her age, with pure confusion, "I thought friends weren't supposed to bow at each other."

"Friends?!" Naruto exclaimed in shock. He didn't have many – if any – friends.

"Yes. We're friends, aren't we?" Mito may have said it like a question, but Naruto somehow got the impression that it was anything but that.

 _Make sure to always be respectful to the main family._

His mother's words ringing in his head once more, he quickly said, "Y-yes. We're friends."

Naruto was quickly coming to the conclusion that he was very wrong about how he had thought the main family would be. He had guessed that they would actually be uptight individuals that demanded respect, but his interaction with Ginrei and Mito told him otherwise. They seemed like they were the total opposite of what he had expected to find.

It was at that moment that Ginrei walked up to Mito and pushed her inside the lounge lightly, eliciting a yelp from the girl, and then a snarl immediately afterwards. Behind Ginrei was a man that had hair that was as red as Mito's, while also sporting a large scar that went across his left cheek.

"You really need to learn how to be patient, child." Ginrei chided the girl, who simply folded her arms at his comment and then chose to stick her nose in the air while closing her eyes.

Naruto watched their interaction with an amused expression, before he felt something akin to a single ray of light trying to pierce his skull. When his eyes drifted towards the source of this invisible discomfort, he found the man that had been walking with Ginrei staring at him with a huge frown on his face.

Staring was actually putting this into a lighter perspective. No. The man was literally drilling into him with his eyes. This made Naruto very uncomfortable, very fast. The man had, in a few seconds, managed to take away the friendly atmosphere that had been exuded by Ginrei and Mito. He made Naruto want to look away, which he did.

The boy chose to focus his eyes on some of the paintings on the wall, noticing how each of them depicted a great warrior riding a horse into battle, or a man fighting a beast of some kind. Looking at these things did not make Naruto feel any relief from the drilling session. In fact, it only intensified it more, to the point where he started shuffling his feet a bit, and was thinking about turning and making a run for it through the hole he had made before.

"Jin, stop." Ginrei said, and then all of a sudden, whatever pressure Naruto had felt, was suddenly lifted off of him. He looked up at Ginrei and found that the old man was looking at the man, Jin, with a disapproving look.

"So you're Kushina's son." Jin said in a slow, yet very authoritative manner, drawing Naruto's attention to him.

Naruto didn't know what to say, or do for that matter. Jin was different from Mito or Ginrei. He exuded power. He had complete command of everything that happened within this room. He could end Naruto's life quicker than he could blink, and Naruto knew it.

Still, though, Naruto had some brain power left in him, which he used to answer the man, although it was a bit too timid for his liking, "H-hai."

"Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Jin."

"I know who you are, Jin-sama," Naruto said, bowing his head at the man, "And it's an honour and a pleasure to meet you."

"Hmm." that was all the man said, before he turned around and left, his black robes fluttering around his feet.

Naruto knew who the man was. He was their clan's leader. Someone that had a fearsome reputation as a monster on the battlefield. Where his father, Ginrei, had excelled in Fūinjutsu, Jin had excelled in Taijutsu and Kenjutsu. He had a body that was both strong, yet also lithe enough that he was both quick on his feet, yet also strong when necessary.

Many said that he was blessed with the body of a god, and it seemed like they were right. Naruto honestly thought that the man could challenge the gods if he sought to. He looked absolutely menacing.

"Ahem." Ginrei's voice drew Naruto's mind away from his thoughts, "I hope my son's charm didn't scare you, Naruto."

"Yeah." Mito said in support of her grandfather, their earlier spat lay forgotten, "What Jii-chan said."

"Honestly," Naruto said, swallowing some saliva, "It does scare me, actually."

"Oh." both, the Uzumaki elder and his granddaughter, said in unison.

"It doesn't mean I won't get over it, though." Naruto said confidently, with a raised fist.

Both main family members smiled up at each other upon seeing Naruto's determination but for different reasons, and one particular reason at the same time.

The reason that they shared was that if Naruto wanted to, he could leave. However neither wanted him to do so, and this is where the different reasons came into play.

"Yay!" Mito said, running up to Naruto and grabbing his hand before pulling him away, "I finally got a friend."

Ginrei watched them run past him, his energetic red haired granddaughter pulling a slightly stupefied Naruto as they exited the lounge, with a soft expression at first, but when the left the room completely, his expression turned to stone.

It was hard for his granddaughter to make friends, considering that she was royalty among Uzumaki. Not even coaxing certain elders' grandchildren had been enough, because they all immediately fell into the same line of obedience and ass kissing as the rest of the clan, and Mito did not need, nor did she want, that. She just wanted to have a normal friendship.

He audibly sighed out loud before he said, "You have so many challenges awaiting you, child. Least of all from my son."

Ginrei proceeded to cross his hands behind his back and slowly exit the lounge. He would let the boy and Mito get familiar with each other for today. Tomorrow is when Naruto's true purpose for coming to his house would begin.

To be Continued

* * *

 **And that, folks, brings a close to the first chapter of my new story,** ** _Genius of the Uzumaki Clan_** **. This idea has been on my head for a while now. I wanted to do a story about Naruto in the warring states, yet at the same time I wanted to do one where he was a genius.**

 **And then I thought, "Hey, why not just combine both ideas." And that is what I have done.**

 **I really hope that you enjoyed it, because I plan on sticking with this one for a while. To those that read my other stories, I haven't given up on them, I'm tossing around the idea of possible re-writes for some, such as Shichibukai no Naruto and Transmigration.**

 **Anyway, let me know what you think about this story and if I should re-write my other stories (Shichibukai is probably** ** _gonna get re-written_** **whether you like it or not).**

 **I swear I will try to update on a regular basis with this story. I'm already beginning the second chapter as we speak, so yeah, dedicated to it while it lasts.**

 **That's all for now.**

 **I'm out.**


	2. Chapter 2: Training Day

CHAPTER TWO: Training day

Beautiful morning sunshine, some gorgeous greenery and lots of fresh air. That was what assaulted Naruto's sense of touch, sight and smell respectively. He was currently standing in the middle of a very luscious training field, one designed specifically for the main family of his clan. The clearing that he was in was so large that the closest tree was actually an entire half a kilometre away.

Unfortunately for him, though, the beauty that could be associated with the training field was completely lost to him due to one very important fact. He was not alone. He was currently standing in the training field with the ever oppressive leader of their clan, Jin.

Jin was decked out in a black gi, while Naruto was dressed in a murky grey coloured variant. Jin had a pair of g-string sandals on, easily the most worn shoe in the world, while Naruto was barefoot.

"All right, boy," the powerful and very commanding voice of Jin said, looking down at the boy, "I hope my father was able to relay your schedule to you yesterday."

"Hai." Naruto answered the man, looking up at him. The man may have had an oppressive aura to him, but Naruto was his mother's child. Uzumaki Kushina was notoriously stubborn, and Naruto would be lying to himself if he said that he did not get at least a fraction of her stubborn nature.

"Before we begin, I want to make a few things clear." Jin said, looking at the child with an unreadable expression etched onto his face. If Jin were honest with himself, he didn't like the boy much – if at all – for personal reasons. The way in which the boy was no longer shuffling under his gaze, but rather staring up at him defiantly, irked him a little.

The fact that the boy also took his pause as a means of him asking for permission to speak to him, to which the boy had nodded his head at him to do so, also aggravated him a bit.

"I wasn't asking for permission to speak, brat." Jin said a bit menacingly, making Naruto gulp a little, "Now…here's what I wanted to say. You're a smart boy, smarter than anyone that has come before you apparently."

Naruto could almost taste the _but_ that was coming.

"But," and he had been on the money, "I don't see it. To me you're just a worm, an insignificant insect that I could crush if I wanted to, but I won't. My father sees value in you."

'In other words, training me was actually your father's idea and not really yours, Jin-sama.' Naruto concluded in his head. In all honesty it put to rest the theory he had developed last night before he went to bed. He could tell from his first interaction with Jin-sama that the man did not like him, not one bit. Yet he had invited him to his home in order to train him. It didn't make sense to the genius eight year old.

And now he had just confirmed his assumption.

"Secondly," Jin's thoughts broke his own thoughts, "I want to make this very clear. If you complain, if you cry, if you so much as ask for a break when I haven't offered you one, you will be punished, _severely_."

The boy nodded at the man a bit too fearful for his own liking. The more time he spent with Jin, the less he liked his clan's leader.

"And now the final thing I wanted to say…every training session that we have shall be held at this time." Jin said, making Naruto nod once more. They had gotten out of bed at five, and it was a few minutes before six, from what Naruto could tell.

"I do not tolerate tardiness." Good thing Naruto's father was such an early riser, because he had pretty much instilled the same sense of hard work into his son, unlike Kushina, who was a heavy sleeper.

Naruto nodded once more, showing his leader and teacher just how much he understood what he had said.

"Good. Now then, we are going to spar a little." Jin said, "This will give me a chance to see what you are made of. Today, we will only focus on Taijutsu. Tomorrow is Kenjutsu. And we will alternated between the two every second day. Am I understood?"

"Hai." Naruto said.

Naruto found himself flying through the air and landing on his back a few feet away from the man thanks to a shove that was initiated by the leader of the Uzumaki clan, who spoke immediately after Naruto hit the ground, "Hai, _sensei_."

Naruto stood up and dusted himself off a little, before he looked at his teacher and said, "Hai, sensei."

"Good." the man said, "Now come at me with the intent to kill, anything else would be but a waste of my time, and yours."

Naruto's sharp little mind was able to piece together why the man wanted him to attack him in such a manner. There was no way an eight year old was ever going to be able to take on a clan leader, so even if he did want to kill him, Naruto was but a speck of dirt when compared to his leader.

With this in mind, the blonde obliged to his teachers instruction.

* * *

Three and a half hours later – Uzumaki Main House

* * *

Tired. Absolutely god-damn tired. That was how Naruto felt after a three hour workout session with Jin. The man had proceeded to curb stomp him into the ground in their spar, showcasing the difference between a man and a boy, a leader and a soldier.

The kimono top that once hung nicely to Naruto's body was now slumped over onto the right, meaning that the right shoulder was exposed to the air. His pants were much better, since they were held up by a piece of cloth tied around his waist tightly.

As Naruto continued his procession in the house of their esteemed – and asshole, a conclusion Naruto reached very quickly – leader, Naruto passed two women that he had not seen the previous day; and they were decked in white.

'Huh?' Naruto thought for a second, watching them talk amongst themselves while they carried some folded clothes and another carried a broom and a bucket of water that was half full.

'Must be the servants.' Naruto concluded. He hadn't seen them yesterday, but then considering that t he had arrived late in the afternoon the previous day, then that meant that the servants either left early or they didn't work everyday.

Upon passing them however, he soon forgot about them and his mind decided to remind of his fatigue.

Jin was a monster when it came to taijutsu, that much had been obvious to Naruto. His teachers in the academy didn't hold a candle to the man. Naruto, by the time he graduated, could land a few hits on his instructors, when they were actually serious. Jin on the other other, was leaps and bounds ahead of him in this shinobi discipline.

The wood creaked tiredly from under his feet, which where sore from all of the sprinting he had done this morning. He silently mused to himself, remembering the training he had just been put through, for the next several minutes, never really taking heed to where he was headed. After all, he had memorised the map of the house last night.

Naruto was brought back to reality when he suddenly found himself in front of a paper door that lead into a room that he was told he would meet Ginrei in.

Taking a deep breath to compose himself Naruto slid the screen to the side, allowing him entrance into the room.

Upon entering the room, Naruto was greeted by the sight of Ginrei kneeling on the wooden floor of the large and very empty room, dressed in a green kimono top and a black pair of pants. Kneeling a few feet in front of Ginrei was a small bundle of white clothes and red hair that Naruto was able to immediately associate with the girl that had practically strong-armed him into being her friend..

Okay, not really strong-armed, but he did not have much of a choice.

As soon as he entered the room, he was immediately assaulted by Mito's smaller frame. She crashed into him, wrapping her hands around him and holding onto him for dear life as if he would disappear if she let go.

"Ack…Mito…lungs." Naruto managed to rasp out as he lightly tapped her on her shoulder.

"Oh, sorry." Mito said sheepishly, immediately letting go of him and taking a step back. She had an innocently apologetic look on her face as she scratched her chin a little bit while saying, "I'm sorry… it's just that I thought that you weren't coming."

"I told you he was, child!" an irate looking Ginrei said from the sidelines.

"Nobody asked for your input, Jii-chan!" Mito shot over her shoulder at her grandfather, leaving him a bit stupefied.

"Mito…" Naruto began, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder, drawing her attention away from her grandfather, "What on earth would make you think that I wouldn't make it?"

Mito looked down, trying to hide the blush she sported from Naruto, and said, "I know how Otou-sama can be a bit…too much."

Naruto simply raised an eyebrow at her answer, "Huh?"

"She feared that her father would have broken your spirit after just one day." Ginrei said from the sidelines.

"And why on earth would you think that could happen?" Naruto questioned both the old man and the girl.

"…Because you are not the first student to walk through these doors." Ginrei answered, his wrinkled finger pointing at the screen Naruto had just entered through.

"What?" Naruto was perplexed by what the old man said.

"A few years ago," Mito said softly, choosing to look at her feet rather than the blonde she was speaking to, "Ken-nii-san, left."

"Nii-san?" Naruto felt the words roll out of his mouth before he could stop them. Of course he knew what she meant when she said the word _nii-san_.

"Hai." Mito said, still choosing to look down at her feet, "His reason for leaving was that he was tired of father always bullying him whenever they trained together."

Naruto could see the solemn expressions that both grandfather and granddaughter shared. Whoever this Ken person had been, he had been a fundamental part of their lives until the day he left.

Mito, who had been trying very hard to hold back the tears at the memory of her brother, suddenly felt something warm touch her chin. When said warm thing had forced her to look up, she noticed that it was Naruto's hand. She also noticed that the blonde was looking at her with a confident smile on his face.

"Hey…" he said softly, using his thumb to caress her cheek in slow circles, trying to calm her down the same way that his mother used to when he was younger. Mito instinctively leaned her head into the soft ministrations of her friend, which also caused her eyes to become half-lidded, "I'm not going anywhere, all right."

Mito didn't know how, but she felt the honesty that was in his words in her heart. She could see it in his eyes. He was being completely honest, and she liked it. Oh, and the soft touches too. They made her feel something unexplainable. Nice, but unexplainable.

"Your father's training may be tough, but I am tougher." Naruto said confidently, his smile broadening ever so slightly, "I won't be going anywhere until I am done with it. Okay?"

She nodded her head at him.

"Good. Now don't cry." Naruto said cheekily.

Mito slapped his hand away and said, "I wasn't crying!"

"Yes, you were!"

"No, I wasn't!"

"Yes, you were!"

"I said no!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"No!"

"Yes!" and then Mito realised her mistake. Judging from the smirk that Naruto gave her, though, it was too late.

"Got you." was all he said, before moving his way past her, looking to get his lesson with the softly snickering Ginrei started.

"Well done, Naruto." Ginrei said, behind the still and shocked Mito.

"What did I do?" Naruto asked innocently.

"You did something I've never been able to do…you shut my granddaughter up." Ginrei said. That, unfortunately, had been the last thing either of them got to say. Mito, with her budding feminine fury, reared her head at them like an animal that had just turned on its master, and shouted her lungs off, "You shut up, you stupid Geezer!"

She then set her sights on Naruto and pointed her index finger at him, "And you! That is the last time I will ever worry about you, okay? Good!"

She then plopped herself onto the ground unceremoniously, and folded her arms while also emitting an audible huff and looking away from them both.

Both males looked at each other in shock, then at Mito, before looking at each other again, before they simply shrugged their shoulders in unison.

"Naruto, sit down." Ginrei ordered him a few seconds after their joint shoulder shrug.

Naruto did as requested by the old man.

"Well, I had originally intended for you and Mito to begin at the same time." Ginrei said, before he looked at his very annoyed granddaughter with a mischievous look in his eyes, "But then I guess she's just going to have to settle with being behind you. I mean, she is a year younger than you, right Naruto?"

Naruto could clearly see what the old man was trying to do. The elderly Uzumaki was trying to make Mito jealous. It seemed to be working if Mito's facial expression was anything to go by. She went from being annoyed and in "ignore mode" to being shocked and afraid. Afraid of being left behind by her friend.

Naruto knew that he had to choose his next words carefully, for they could be detrimental to his (forced) friendship with the Uzumaki heiress.

"Um…you know, I think it would be best if we waited for her." Naruto said, eyes darting back and forth between grandfather and granddaughter.

He saw Ginrei look at him a bit sceptically for some odd reason, while the corner of Mito's lips curved upwards slightly, signalling that she was pleased by what he had said, and that her "ignore mode" was over.

"N-no, it okay…I'll be joining you." She said, making Naruto sigh internally.

Both children turned to look at Ginrei, who looked shocked for reasons that neither child could fathom, before he simply smiled at them both and said, "All right. Let us begin."

* * *

A few hours later

* * *

The soft patter of feet on wood alerted Naruto to someone coming into the room that he was using as his own. He had just taken a nice, warm bath, and he was feeling refreshed. Tired, but refreshed. Looking at the shadow that approached his door, Naruto was able to quickly surmise who it was without them saying a word.

"Come in, Mito." he said.

"How did you know that it was me?" the girl asked, feeling rather annoyed by the fact the blonde was able to figure out it was her.

The two small but parallel balls stuck onto a larger ball that the shadow indicated were a dead give away. Although he was not going to tell her that.

"Genius, remember?" he said smiling at her.

"I don't know…" Mito said playfully, looking at the blonde dressed in a white robe, indicating that he just took a bath, "All I see is an idiot."

"An idiot that's already ahead of you in Fūinjutsu." Naruto said cheekily, sticking out his tongue in order to add insult to injury.

Mito faulted a bit, not really able to create a good comeback, but she did settle for saying, "Whatever, I will catch up to you eventually."

"Whatever lets you sleep at night." Naruto said, turning his back on her and walking towards the walk-in closet that was in his room, before he shut it.

"Hey, it's only been one day!" Mito replied, looking to get the last word in. It seemed to work, as Naruto didn't bother with replying.

Naruto was busy fiddling with the contents of the bag he had brought with him the previous day. The sack-like bag contained five scrolls, each one containing something of his. Throwing the one that contained all of his formal clothing aside, he took the one that had all of his nightwear. He unfurled the scroll, before channelling bits of his rather large chakra into it and he got the desired result of watching his Jinbei (traditional Japanese pyjamas) pop into existence.

Naruto, as quickly as his tired aching body would allow him to, put them on before he left the confines of the walk in closet. Upon doing so, he found Mito sitting on the ultra padded futon that he had slept in last night.

'Seriously, these guys sleep in style.' Naruto had concluded. He had never seen a futon with padding so thick before.

Mito was quietly drawing kanji on a little scroll that she had. Every time she wrote incorrect kanji, it would simply disappear. Which meant that the only way she could be sure that she had written the right thing was if the kanji stayed in place.

"Sorry to make you wait." Naruto said, quickly plopping himself down on the soft futon. Mito just nodded her head.

Naruto chose to keep quiet and watch Mito do her thing. The seven year old girl turned her head to look at the boy next to her with curios eyes. She noticed that he was staring intently at her hands as she wrote on the scroll.

"It's "mah" not "nah"." she heard him say, "Add a curve at the top."

Her eyes went back to the scroll and stayed on it as she decided to heed his advice. She redrew the kanji that had just disappeared, but she added a slight curve at the top, and watched in fascination as the kanji stayed put.

"Wow, you really are a genius." she said before she could stop herself.

"It's just kanji, nothing special." Naruto said. He may have sounded arrogant, but he was anything but.

"Still, you know how to write perfectly, and you're only eight." she said, turning to look at Naruto.

"So?" he said in genuine curiosity. He wanted to know what was so special about him being able to write at the age of eight.

"Onii-chan was only able to perfectly write at the age of ten. Jii-chan said he learned how to write perfectly when he was nine." Mito stressed.

Naruto had a raised eyebrow at that comment, "I still don't see your point."

Mito huffed out loud, before shoving the scroll and the brush into his lap and said, "Hold this."

She stood up and walked over to the a small cabinet that was next to the futon. The cabinet had an oil lamp on it and three drawers. Pulling on one of the drawers, Mito brought forth what Naruto assumed was rice paper.

Mito turned around and showed him what was written on the piece of paper. It was the kanji for ten. Done crudely at that.

"What is that?" Naruto asked.

"It's onii-chan's. He had a habit of always writing his favourite number. The number ten. And this is one he did when he was your age." Mito stated.

Naruto blinked owlishly, only now understanding why she made such a big issue out of him being able to write kanji neatly. If what he saw truly was Ken's hand writing at the age of eight, then the guy was terrible. He was absolutely horrendous.

'Damn, even Mito writes better than him. He must be terrible at Fūinjutsu with handwriting like that.' Naruto's thoughts reverberated through his mind.

And here he was thinking that a four year old wrote that. Then again, he was comparing it to his four year old self.

"Okay…fine. You win." Naruto said, throwing his hands up in the air in defeat.

"I didn't realise that we were playing a game." Mito said while shoving her brother's piece of paper back in the drawer.

The girl returned to sit next to him, before prying the scroll out of the boy's hands and continuing with her writing skills. They stayed silent for a really long time, with only the occasional word of advice from Naruto on how Mito should write her kanji.

"Was this Ken-sama's room?" Naruto asked, after there had been a long bout of silence between them.

"…Yes, it is." Mito said, looking at the scroll in her lap.

"I see…" was all Naruto said. He silently wondered where her older brother had gone off to. Whenever somebody leaves their clan, they are immediately placed within the Wanted Books. Every clan had a Wanted Book.

* * *

 _A six year old Naruto sat comfortably in his room, going over a scroll that was unfurled on his lap. The scrolls contents were a bit lost to him, as it spoke of something he could not understand. Luckily for him, he knew someone that could help._

 _Jumping to his feet, the little boy left his room, with the scroll in hand. He quickly rushed down the steps of his home, all the while shouting, "Okaa-san, okaa-san!"_

" _What is it, 'ttebayo!" Uzumaki Kushina's slightly annoyed voice rang from the kitchen._

 _Naruto's soft feet hurried towards her location, and upon entering the kitchen he found his mother, the one person that could help him._

" _Okaa-san, I need your help with something." Naruto's softly asked his mother._

" _What is it?" Kushina said while wiping her hands dry using a dish cloth._

" _It's an assignment from school." Naruto handed his mother the scroll._

 _Kushina looked at the scroll's contents, picking out the question that Naruto needed help with._

" _Clans have been know to work together over the years, even rival clans. What is the name of the special condition that has to be met when they do so?" Kushina read the question out loud, before a smile graced her soft pink lips as she said, "Well, that's easy. It's during a Wanted Case."_

" _Wanted Case?" Naruto asked, all of his innocence coming to the forefront._

" _Yes, Wanted Case." Kushina said, handing the scroll back to her son._

 _Naruto jotted down what he needed to with his brush, and once he was done doing so he looked up at his mother, who was looking down at him expectantly._

" _Anything else I can help you with?" Kushina asked._

" _Not really. But I just wanted to know…what is a Wanted Case?"_

" _Oh…take a seat. It's a bit of a long explanation." Naruto heeded his mom's advice and sat down on the floor around the table he had just used to write his answer on a few moments ago._

" _Okay." Kushina said, exhaling a bit, feeling herself go into "teacher mode"._

" _A wanted case is one that involves the Wanted Books. You know what those are, right?"_

 _A shake of the head was the only answer she was given, prompting Kushina to sigh out loud while before adding, "What do they teach you guys, nowadays?"_

" _Um, Mathematics, Fūinjutsu, Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Literature-"_

" _It was a rhetorical question, son." Kushina's face sported a warm smile as she leaned forward and ruffled her son's hair a little bit. Honestly, despite all of his intelligence, he was still only six years old._

 _Naruto just calmly let his mother ruffle his, already unruly, hair. Trying to fight of his mother would only lead to further embarrassment. Besides, he secretly enjoyed it._

" _Well," his mother said, getting on with her_ lesson _, "I guess the best way to explain a wanted book is…they are a series of books kept by every clan. They contain information of everything that a clan wants…well, only the things that they want known to the world at least."_

" _Like?" Naruto innocently queried._

" _A hidden treasure, some medicine plant or even another shinobi that they want dead."_

" _Why would they want people to know about a hidden treasure. I mean, wouldn't they be better served if the treasure was only known by the clan?"_

" _True, but then sometimes it happens that someone else stumbles upon something that, while they think it is useless, someone else would pay a lot of money for."_

" _Such as what exact, okaa-san?"_

" _Well, let me think of an exam – aha – got it." Kushina snapped her thumbs triumphantly as she looked at the ceiling before she looked back at her only child and said, "Well, I know for instance that certain jutsu scrolls, or information pertaining to certain jutsu is highly valuable. For instance, I once heard that the Uchiha clan are willing to pay a hundred thousand Ryo for concrete information on the Hachimon."_

" _What's a Hachimon?"_

" _The Hachimon is a technique that allows you to increase your body's strengths exponentially. It's a short-lived power boost, but very handy. Only several people throughout history have been seen using it because it's too complex for ordinary shinobi to utilise. It's said that complete mastery of the Hachimon can make you the strongest person in the world."_

" _That's so cool!" Naruto had stars in his eyes, just picturing himself throwing around the five elements like a god._

" _No, not cool." Kushina said sternly, pointing her index finger threateningly at her son, "If one were to use the full power of the Hachimon they can destroy an entire clan, but at the end of it all, they would die."_

 _Naruto swallowed thickly upon hearing that someone could die from using the Hachimon. As unbelievably powerful as it was, it was too dangerous to use. He did not want to die._

" _And another thing." Kushina said, "If the Uchiha were to get their hands on it, no clan, not even ours, would be safe. They would literally take over the world. Even with just partial mastery of the Hachimon, you are considered one of the strongest in the world."_

 _Just thinking about a world ruled by the Uchiha and their red demonic eyes that he had only seen illustrations of sent a shiver down Naruto's spine. Most kids his age would not understand the full implications of what his mother had said, but he did. The Uchiha would be unstoppable. An entire clan of Hachimon utilising Dōjutsu wielders…too scary._

" _Okay…" Naruto concluded, "…not cool."_

" _Not one bit."_

 _There was a few moments of silence between mother and son, before Naruto asked another question, "I understand the treasure part now. The medicine part is self-explanatory, but what about the shinobi part? Why would clans advertise who they wanted dead?"_

 _Kushina took on a thinking pose as she thought of the best possible way to explain things to her son. She entertained the idea of using herself as an example, before she shut it down for something a bit more progressive, "Imagine this, you're a very strong shinobi and you get into a skirmish with…wait, which clan do you detest the most?"_

 _Naruto thought about what his mother was asking him for a second, before the answer formulated in his mind, "None."_

" _Really?" Kushina asked with a raised eyebrow._

" _Yep. None." her son replied._

" _Huh, well I'll be. They used to teach us to hate the Uchiha because they were the natural enemy of the Senju, but now it seems as if they don't do that any more."Kushina thought out loud, before she quickly said, "Anyway, for the purpose of this conversation lets use another example then."_

 _Kushina took a thinking pose once again, trying to see what she could draw upon from her many years of service to her clan. Eventually finding what she was looking for, the Uzumaki kunoichi said, "There had been a case a few years ago where a man that was part of the Kaguya clan of Mizu no Kuni had decided to cut all ties with his clan and he left them. He was someone that had killed a lot of people, and when the vapour specialists, the Terumi, had found out they contacted the Kaguya and decided to eliminate him together."_

 _Naruto scratched his head in such a cute manner that it made Kushina want to squeal in delight. It honestly reminded her of an animal cub scratching its ear, "Why?"_

" _Why what?"_

" _Why did the Terumi clan get involved in a matter that was clearly not theirs to concern themselves with?"_

 _Kushina smiled at her son's quick thinking,_ " _Because the man had apparently killed more than fifteen Terumi clan members before he defected from the Kaguya. The Kaguya wanted him dead because they wanted him to serve as an example of why you should never betray them, family or not."_

" _I see…" Naruto said, finally understanding what his mom was saying, "What happened to the man?"_

" _Well, the information about his defection was placed in the Red Book. When your name enters into the Wanted Books, you become public enemy number… whatever. Only your strength and your pursuers determination to exterminate you determines how high you are placed. To the Kaguya, and the Terumi, he was public enemy number one._ "

" _I'm guessing that they found him and tortured to death?"_

" _And what gave you that gruesome impression?"_

" _Shinobi torture and kill...it's the world we live in."_

" _I guess so."_

 _Kushina looked at her son with adoration. She could see his small, yet very brilliant mind trying to sort through everything he had been told. She loved her son, oh so very much. His cute chubby cheeks just made her want to hold him and squeeze him like a teddy bear._

 _She was cut off from her musings when she smelled something burn._

" _Holy shit, the food!" Kushina did not realise that she had just cursed in front of her son, and he had picked it up. He did not say anything, however. He simply chose to slip away from the kitchen while his mother fretted over the burning meal._

* * *

"Hey…is your brother in one of the Wanted Books?" Naruto asked innocently, but he soon regretted it because of the way Mito reacted. Her whole body turned stiff as a wall, but she quickly shook her head immediately afterwards.

"Oh." was Naruto's reply, "Sorry."

Mito didn't say anything, she just slowly stood up and then she sauntered to the door. She pushed the screen aside, before she stepped out of her older brother's room.

"Good night." she said a bit too quietly for Naruto's liking, before she shut the screen without even looking at him.

Naruto was left all alone in his room to think about what had just happened.

Naruto was not much for swearing, in fact he abhorred it. Yet at the same time he felt like doing so at that particular moment. So he had chosen the least vulgar vulgar word that he knew of.

"Shit."

He had screwed up with that last question.

* * *

Elsewhere

* * *

When an ant looks at the world it sees everything as gigantic. Something that humans deem small and insignificant could mean something else to an ant, usually certain doom. If one were to look at the world from an ant's point of view then the stamp that Jin was using in order to officiate the document in front of him would seem really large.

The almost inaudible thud of the stamp being slammed onto the piece of parchment would seem like an earthquake. One relatively short-lived earthquake.

"Jin," Ginrei's voice caused the paper stamping to cease for the time being as Jin looked up from his paper and noticed his father's silhouette at the paper door, "I'm coming in."

That was all the warning he was going to get as his father sauntered into the office of the Uzumaki clan head.

"Sit, father." was all Jin said to the man.

Ginrei's face showed his displeasure at his son's treatment of him, "Please…as if I needed your permission to do that, especially in an office I have occupied for more than half a century."

Jin never looked up at his father as he furiously worked away at the papers that were in front of him, "Be that as it may, it's my office now, and if I wished it, I could have you removed from it."

Jin's incessant working made him miss his father's frown. Ginrei did not know why, but he should have been used to this now, his son was as rude to him as he was towards everyone within the clan, with a select few here and there.

Quickly schooling his features into a neutral expression, the old man said, "I wanted to discuss Naruto's first day in training."

"What's there to discuss?" Jin said, still not bothering with looking up, "It's only been one day."

The former leader of the Uzumaki clan reached up and started his customary beard stroking, "Yes, and in that one day the boy looks like he was put in an abattoir."

There was nothing said on Jin's part, he instead focused on the papers that were in front of him. This continued for a few seconds, before he felt his father's intense gaze on him, prompting him to look up from his work and see his father's furious gaze matching his own cold, uncaring one.

"Huh, what?" Jin's tone matched his facial expression.

"What did you do to the boy?" his father's rage could be felt through the question.

* * *

 _Jin watched the blonde Uzumaki boy move about. He was quick on his feet, he would give him that, but his attacks left a lot to be desired. They lacked any real power, power that he, at the same age, had long since obtained._

 _Parrying another strike to the head, before delivering a palm thrust to the boy's chest, Jin watched in impassiveness as Naruto picked himself off the ground. The boy's outfit had grass stains on it from all of the times he had fallen flat on his back._

" _Stop." he told the boy in a calm manner, befitting an individual such as him, to which the boy complied with._

" _I have seen enough." He told the boy, "And I have to say that I am disappointed._ Genius of the Uzumaki, my foot _."_

 _Naruto was pretty sure that he wasn't supposed to hear that last part, but he didn't care. Unlike most people, he didn't live for the soul purpose of getting his clan head's recognition. He didn't really care what Jin thought of him, and he had a feeling that Jin knew so._

" _While you are very quick on your feet, boy," he paused a bit, what for, Naruto didn't know, "You are also very weak in terms of physical strength. So here is what I am going to do. I am going to have to work with you on increasing your upper body strength while also keeping you light on your feet."_

 _The boy was fast, exceptionally so, for an eight year old._

 _Once again, Naruto nodded in understanding._

" _We'll begin that now." quicker than Naruto could follow, Jin shoved his hand into the ground and withdrew a chunk of it, holding it up for the world to see._

" _You will take this," he threw the large rock at Naruto, who caught it with a loud_ huff, _"And you will run around the edge of the clearing at full sprint."_

 _Naruto swallowed thickly upon realising that the circumference of the clearing was one whole kilometre, meaning that that is how much he would have to run, at full sprint._

 _Oh, he was fucked._

* * *

"Nothing." Jin answered coolly.

"It better be. I don't want you to treat him as an anvil to pound out your frustrations."

"What are you talking about, old man?"

"I know you hate the boy because he reminds of what you've always wanted, but could never have-"

"-Shut up!" Jin said, striking the small table he knelt in front off with all of the might he could master, which resulted in the table taking on the form of two hemispheres like a brain.

Ginrei knew he had struck a nerve with his son, but he needed to say what was on his mind, or else he would continue to torture the boy that was left in their care, "Why?"

"Because-"

"-You, boy, seem to have me confused with those of the clan that fear you." Ginrei said, his eyes becoming as ice cold as his son's in an instant, "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it. Remember that when speaking to me."

Jin knew his father was serious. This man was one of the most dangerous men alive. He was the strongest Uzumaki alive, despite his age. If provoked, he could kill him. After all, it nearly happened once.

"The boy…" Jin began, trying, and failing, to control his rage at having been treated like a child, "He means nothing to me beyond being a tool I can utilise to take the clan to new heights. That's the only reason why I agreed to this idea of yours, father."

"So he does not have any emotional effect on you, in any way?" Ginrei asked, although he already knew the answer.

"No." Jin answered. Ginrei would have frowned if he could at that moment, but he was too cross with his son to do so. His son did just lie to him about Naruto not having any effect on him.

"Good. See to it that it stays this way." Ginrei said coldly. Honestly, his son brought out the worst in him at times.

Getting up, the old man marched towards the paper door that would lead out of his son's office...

"I got a letter." but he was stopped by his son's voice

"From whom?" Ginrei asked, spinning on his heels to get a look at his son.

"Our distant cousins…"

"And what do they want now? Another one of us to teach them how to seal? Or are they still trying to get us to catch them a Bijū?" Honestly, the supposed greatest clan in the world that mastered everything were a pain in the back at times, even to their relatives.

"None, fortunately. Butsuma-dono just lost a son, and he wanted to take his remaining three on a trip to see our island." Jin answered his father with neutrality. He could see it in his father's eyes. The old man did not believe a single word of what Butsuma's letter had said. He had ulterior motives. That man was always scheming. And honestly, he shared his father's sentiment. It was one of the few things that they could agree upon. Senju Butsuma was as slimy as an Uchiha.

"I see." was all the old man said, his mind running at a mile a minute. He had so many thoughts that ran through his mind, and when he saw his son's eyes, he knew that the same could be said for the young man, "What do you think about all of this, Jin?"

"I don't know what to think. But I know that whatever it is, we have a few months to prepare." Jin answered, scratching his chin.

"How many to be exact?" Ginrei asked, stroking his beard.

"Three months."

There was a few moments of silence, as neither father or son said anything. Ginrei's feet shuffled to the door, before his hands slid it open and walked out of the room, realising that he had a huge job on his hands. Getting Jin to ease up on Naruto; and to also deal with this mess that was coming with the Senju.

Those morons were probably going to ask his clan to join in their silly skirmishes with the Uchiha and whatever other clan they dared cross paths with…or a clan that dared to cross paths with them.

Honestly, why was he still alive?

* * *

To Be Continued

* * *

 **Wow, second chapter done already, and I've already begun work on the third chapter. I know this chapter was not as explosive as the first one, but it had to be put out there because of all of the fantastic things I have planned for these characters.**

 **What do you guys think of the Wanted Books? Surely clans had some sort of Bingo book system before the Bingo books were invented? I just thought of this as a possible predecessor to the Bingo books.**

 **Also, thank you so much for all of the love and support for this story. I want to thank all of those that took their time to review this story, and just know that all of your suggestions (for those that suggested things) have been taken into consideration.**

 **Anywho, with that said, I would like to bring this chapter to a close.**

 **I'm Out.**

 _ **P.s**_ **If I made a comic book, how many of you guys would buy it?**


	3. Chapter 3: Family

You guys, the love and support I have received for this story is a bit shocking really. It has to be the fastest story I have ever written to get to 300 Followers…ever! Thank you so much for the support! Love you all!

* * *

Disclaimer: I own Naruto. There! I said it. And if Mashity Shitymoto has a problem he can PM me, so I can punch him and make Naruto my own. Then, I can finally makee my dream of a detailed prelude of the Naruto universe set during the Warring States a reality.

* * *

Chapter Three: Family

* * *

The sound of rain pelting a window pane was all Naruto could hear when his mind came out of his dreamless sleep. He slowly got out of his bed and sauntered over to the window. Peeling the curtain open, he was able to get a good view of the terrible weather outside. Sighing to himself, the boy let go of the curtain, knowing it would correct itself, as he quickly left his bedroom.

He left his room and went into the upstairs bathroom of his parents' house. He was back here, at the house where he was born, for the weekend. It was his first weekend back home, and his parents' plan of spending the day outside with a family picnic had just been shoved down the drain. He did not really care, though. Whether it was inside or outside, he just wanted to spend some time with his family.

Quickly taking care of his morning rituals, he left the bathroom and went back into his room. He quickly sorted out his bed, making sure that it was neatly arranged for when he returned later on at night for his sleep. He left the bedroom not long after.

Walking into the living room, he found his father sitting there with a deck of cards laid out in front of him. His father, a man he had inherited his looks from, looked up at him as soon as he made his presence known.

"You're up now; finally!" the blue pants and green kimono top-wearing man said to his son.

"How long have you been waiting for me?" Naruto asked his father as he sat down on cushion that was on the opposite side of his father's table.

Minato placed his right index finger on his chin and lightly tapped it, "Mmh, ten minutes, I think?"

"I see." Naruto said as he took the cards that were laid out in front of his father and he started shuffling them, "Well, what are we playing first?"

"Your call, kiddo." his dad answered. Naruto loved his father to bits. The man was, without a shadow of a doubt, the most calm individual Naruto had ever seen. Naruto sometimes entertained the fantasy that his father would have made for a truly frightening shinobi had he been introduced to the art from an early age instead of being a carpenter.

"Alright." Naruto proceeded to lay out the cards he had just finished shuffling in front of his dad for a game of crazy eights, before a question popped into his head, "Where's mom?"

"She went shopping for things you would need for the upcoming week." Minato answered as he picked up his playing cards and smiled a little at seeing his favourable hand.

"Don't tell me she was seriously considering buying all of the material I needed for my next invention?" Naruto asked in a flabbergasted manner.

"Oh, she is…" Minato said with a smile on his face.

"Let me guess…" Naruto spoke with a deadpanned expression as he looked at his hand, and picked up a card from the deck-in-waiting, "She wants it too."

"Yep." was all Minato said as he played his card. He then looked at his son in the eyes and said, "So tell me something…"

Naruto looked up at his dad and said, "Yeah…"

"How's that bastard, Jin, treating you?" Minato said, barely able to keep the venom out of his voice. He honestly did not like the leader of the Uzumaki clan. He was always so pompous and had a holier-than-thou attitude that made Minato hate him. Yes, he hated the man.

Naruto did not make a single move for a second, trying to formulate the right words in his head. His father, upon seeing his hesitation, came up to his own conclusion.

"He's bordering on the line of being abusive to you, isn't he?" Minato said in a deathly whisper. His son's non-response prompted him to think of the worst things imaginable. He saw an image of his son being whipped on his back while being made to run on broken glass.

"No, he isn't." Naruto answered, "There is no such thing as abusive when it comes to shinobi training, Tou-san."

Minato did not like what his was implying. Has that bastard not only abused his son, but also brainwashed him into believing that a thing such as abuse did not exist? This was one of the may reasons why he hated almost everything related to being a shinobi. His eyes had a cold edge to them that Naruto rarely saw whenever he spoke with his father, as the man spoke in a very quiet tone, "What do you mean?"

"Exactly that, Tou-san." Naruto answered a bit fearfully, his father's tone not sitting well with him, "Shinobi, in order to achieve perfection, put their lives on the line, even when they train."

"But that's wrong." Minato said almost instantly, his cold edge gone, and now replaced by a warm glow of concern, "People shouldn't risk their lives that much that their convinced that abusing their own bodies is the only way forward for them in terms of being a shinobi. And besides, there is no such thing as perfection."

Naruto, upon seeing this, realised exactly why his father was not a shinobi and why the man might not really have been cut out for it, even with his overly-calm nature. He was just too damn soft. He may have been young, but he could tell that his father had a bit of a naïve view of the world.

"Tell that to those that don't know it." Naruto said, continuing with his turn. He always knew that there was no such thing as perfection. He never truly aimed for it. Only idiots did that.

" _Look at that_ , even my eight year old son knows that there's no such thing as perfection." Minato said animatedly. His son also happened to be a genius among geniuses, but that was beside the point.

"But there is near-perfection." Naruto said bluntly as he watched his father play.

Minato froze for a second at what his son said. Once again, his son said something he did not like one bit. It meant that his son was willing to put his life on the line as well, like every other shinobi out there.

Before he could voice his concerns however, their front door slid open, and in walked in the lady of the house.

"Boys, I'm home." Kushina said as she made her way towards her two favourite people in the entire world.

"Hey, kaa-chan." Naruto said as he watched his mother walk into the living room barefoot. Her shoes, Naruto guessed, were probably left outside due to the rain. The bottom part of her dress was damp from the rain. Her umbrella could not thoroughly protect her from the water that came from the heavens.

Kushina walked all the way up to Naruto first, since he was the closest, and she bent down and hugged him with one arm, before she kissed the top of his head, "So, how are my favourite people doing on this very, very annoyingly wet day?"

Minato smiled at his wife as she came up to him and kissed him on the lips, getting Naruto to elicit an, "Ew!" before he said, "A lot better than you, that's for certain."

"Ow!" Minato was hit by a punch on his left shoulder as Kushina sat beside him, "What was that for?"

"What do you think it was for, you sissy?" Kushina said, closing her eyes and sticking her tongue out at her husband.

Minato quickly reached out and grabbed hold of her tongue with his thumb and index finger and lightly tugged it.

"Hahahahaha…" Naruto was laughing out loud from the sidelines, watching the heart-warming interaction between his parents.

"Minatho, leth go os my thangue." Kushina asked nicely.

"Nope." Minato said sweetly as well, all the while looking at his wife with a matching smile on his face, "Not until you apologise."

'Let it be known, universe, that I asked him politely first.' Kushina mentally intoned, before she quickly reached out and did something that made Minato scream like a little girl.

"Yeeheeheehee!" Minato said as he instantly let go of his wife's tongue and tried to pry off her vice grip-like hand from his family jewels.

"Apologise for what, sweety?" now it was Kushina's turn to speak with a sweet smile on her face.

"Nuh-nuh-nothing!" Minato said as he tried to back away from his wife in order to lessen her grip on his nether region. He was feeling a lot of pain at the moment, and he would be willing to do anything to make it end.

"Now, lemme ask you this." Kushina said, sickly sweet smile still plastered on her face, "Who's a sissy?"

" _I am._ " Minato's voice was almost inaudible as he squeaked out his answer.

"Good." Kushina said, as she let go of his family jewels, "And don't you forget it."

Kushina stood up and walked up to her son, who was looking at his father cradling his private part while rolling on the floor very slowly, tears streaming down his face, with a very horrified expression etched onto his face. Upon reaching her son, Kushina grew an amused expression when she saw him cover his private part.

"Don't worry sweety." Kushina said as she reached out and ruffled Naruto's hair, "I won't do that to you, just so long as you promise not to be an idiot like my dear husband."

Naruto did not say anything, instead he chose to just shake his head in affirmation at her thinly veiled threat to him.

"Oh, before I forget…" he heard his mom say above him, "Here."

Naruto heard a small pop, a sound he had come to know as one that only occurred in two events. Number one was during an unsealing ritual, and the other was during the usage of the Kawarimi no jutsu. A second later, a scroll the size of his forearm had made itself known to him as it was placed between his eyes vertically, thus leading him to conclude that the sound was probably from a wrist seal being used.

His hands left his crotch and they humbly accepted the scroll, all the while he did not really look up to his mom as she walked away. He was still too transfixed on the scene he had just seen. His mother was absolutely dangerous. No one was safe from her, not even the man that had impregnated her almost nine years ago.

"Thanks." he said in a dead voice before his mother came back to bonk him on the head for forgetting to say so. The first time that happened was all the necessary reminder that he needed.

"No problem, sweety." his mother's muffled voice came from the passage, most probably on her way to change out of her slightly wet clothing.

" _Whyyyyyy_?" Naruto watched in shock as his father kept cradling the most sensitive portion of his body, " _Why did I have to marry an Uzumaki?_ "

'Why indeed?' Naruto wondered to himself.

* * *

Warmth. That's the feeling that one would get as soon as they stepped into the home of the first family. A warmth that was so pleasing that it would make you forget that you were in a shinobi home and that you were within the confines of one of the most secure houses throughout the world. The warmth washes over you, like a fountain of warm water, caressing your skin, making your mind go numb for just a second…

"I see that you're back."

…All before the cold hard reality of this being a shinobi home brings you back to reality, courtesy of the leader of the Uzumaki clan, Jin.

"Hai, Jin-sama."

"Good. Then stop standing in the door way like an idiot. You're ruining the warmth in the house." the man's awfully cold and off-putting voice droned from a few feet in front of Naruto.

"Gomen, Jin-sama." Naruto proceeded to close the paper screen behind him, set his shoes to the side for one of the servants to pick up, and walk into the house of his illustrious clan.

"How is your mother, boy?" Jin asked, with his arms crossed over his chest, and peering down at his student.

"She is fine, Jin-sama." Naruto replied, looking at his clan's leader in the eye.

"Good." was all the man said, before he turned on his heels and quickly left the boy to his own devices.

As soon as the man had disappeared from his sight, Naruto let go of sigh he had been unconsciously holding in. Jin, despite not truly striking any fear in Naruto, had a powerful and oppressive aura. It took all of Naruto's stubborn willpower that he had inherited from his mother to not cave and look at the man's feet whenever he spoke to him. He would never, ever, truly bow down to anyone.

After all, to him, there was respect, then they was complete slavery and servitude. He always strove for the former, never the latter. His latent Uzumaki stubbornness would never truly allow him to do so.

"Naruto? You're back?" Naruto heard the soft, heart-warming voice of his friend calling to him. It withdrew him from his thoughts and placed him back in reality.

Looking over to the entrance to the hallway, Naruto saw Mito standing there, wearing what was a rather simple plain white kimono, with her hair tied into their customary double buns. She had a rather large smile on her face, not really what Naruto had been expecting to see on the face of the young girl.

"Hey, Mito." was all the blonde could say, before his friend had covered the distance between them and swallowed him in her arms.

'What the-? Is she no longer mad at me?' Naruto thought, feeling utterly confused by what Mito was doing. Deciding on not looking a gift horse in the mouth, Naruto hugged her back, feeling the warmth that she radiated. It matched her smile, and it was all thanks to the fact that she had been in doors the entire weekend, while he had not.

"Soooo, how was the weekend at your parents place?" Mito asked, pulling back from the slightly taller blonde haired boy and looking at him up and down, as if trying to see if he would physically metamorphose in front of her.

'My weekend was awesome! I didn't want to return, but I'm obligated to do so. Why? Because your dad's a dick and I am the sorry unlucky bastard blessed with a genius intellect that he has set his sights on!' is what he wanted to say.

Instead, with a small smile, he said, "My weekend was awesome. I got to spend some quality time with my parents, and while it was sad leaving them, I couldn't wait to come and see you!"

Mito brightened up as soon as she heard the last part of what he had said. She brought forth a megawatt smile that illustrated just how happy Naruto's answer made her feel.

"Well, I'm glad you feel that way, because I missed having someone to play with." the girl said, smile still in place.

"What do you mean?" Naruto said, feigning ignorance, "I thought you had mister Plank-plank."

Mito grew red in the face at the mention of mister Plank-plank. She could never truly get over the fact that Naruto had caught her playing with a wooden doll, despite the fact that it was frowned upon by the shinobi world at large for a child her age to be indulging in toys.

But then she was the Uzumaki princess, thus she just got to do nearly anything she wanted, so long as if her father or grandfather approved. And mister Plank-plank was something they both approved. of.

"Hehehehe." Hearing Naruto chuckle, she looked up just in time to see him ruffle her hair a little before he added, "I'm just messing with you…oh, and tag. You're it."

Without wasting another second, the blonde haired boy had disappeared from her sight.

"Hey, no fair!" Mito shouted as she ran into the hallway, "You didn't warn me. And you're faster than me!"

A few seconds later, footsteps could be heard all over the Uzumaki household as the two youngest inhabitants of the house chased each other back and forth, not caring about the loud ruckus that they made, for they were children after all. Even the one with a high-level IQ.

* * *

"Ginrei-sensei?" Naruto said, sitting down in a lotus position as he practised different symbols on a piece of paper.

"Yes, Naruto." his Fūinjutsu teacher said, keeping a vigilant eye on his young protégée.

Today, it was just Naruto and Ginrei in the study. According to Ginrei, Mito was a bit too behind Naruto in order for them to have Fūinjutsu lessons together, as Mito would just hold him back, and he would inversely make the girl strive for things she was not ready for. So from today onwards, Mito had Fūinjutsu in the morning, while Naruto was being taught either Kenjutsu or Taijutsu.

"The other day…" Naruto made an upward stroke with the brush he held in his hand, "…when I returned from my parents' house…Mito was…happy to see me."

Ginrei didn't move a muscle as he continued observing Naruto's hands. The boy's technique was nearly perfect, and that was when comparing him to professional sealers.

"Oh, and how is that a bad thing?"

"Well, the thing is, when I had left for the weekend, which you know I spent at my parents house…" Naruto curved the brush down, before he received a light tap on his brush holding hand.

"Ow!" he said, drawing his hand back from the stinging sensation that he felt in it, all thanks to his sensei's cane.

"Focus. You curved it too much. One small, slightly off-key curve could, or rather _will_ , mean the difference between life and death." Ginrei spoke in a reprimanding manner, as Naruto rubbed his hand in order to sooth the stinging sensation.

'Still too green to have perfect technique.' Ginrei thought to himself.

"I know that already, sensei." Naruto grumbled, before he looked at the sheet next to the one that he was practising on and saw just how he had overshot the curve. That was the problem with Fūinjutsu, too little or too much of a curve or an ink blot can result in you creating a dud, which is always the best case scenario in this field.

"Then focus." the elderly Uzumaki statesman said, but he did not really have to because his student had already seen his error and had gone about correcting it already.

'That's much better, my boy.'

"You were mentioning something about Mito." the elder said after a minute of silence between him and his student.

"Oh, yes…it's-it's just that she had been angry with me before I left." Naruto admitted.

"Oh, and what brought this on?" Ginrei asked. His granddaughter had the emotional propensity of a-a … there was nothing quite like his granddaughter. One moment she was happen, and then the next she was mad about something.

"I think…" Naruto stuck his tongue out of his mouth as he drew a perfect half circle, before he placed two perfectly parallel ink blot-dots within the half circle, "I think it's because I said something about your grandson. Something that, while I did not mean any offence with, she took it as such."

"I see." Ginrei said as his eyes darted through the rice paper that Naruto was practising on at the same speed his hands were moving, which was not very fast, "Let me ask you this, Naruto…"

"Hai?"

"Have you ever been mad at someone before?"

His so-called friends in school that secretly hated him came to mind.

The boy shook his head at Ginrei as he placed a very long line from the left of the page to the right, "I've only ever been disappointed in people before."

"Well, I guess that's the problem here." Ginrei said, watching as Naruto got to work on the final symbol on the rice paper, "You see, you're a special child, Naruto. You did not, and maybe will never, ever, go through some of the more… tedious stages of child hood."

Naruto was quiet for a second as he mulled over his sensei's deduction while also looking at the seal he had to copy.

"You mean mood swings like Mito's?" Naruto said after a few moments.

"Not really mood swings, but rather uncontrollable emotions that are just all over the show." Ginrei corrected his charge.

"I see." was all Naruto said as he went about working on the final seal. His hand moved in perfect fluidity, never leaving the paper unless if its to dip the small brush in more ink. After a short while doing this, Naruto quickly put forth the final symbol on the paper, before he placed his brush to the side and leaned back from his copied seals.

Ginrei took one look at them all for his final verdict, before he spoke, "Naruto, do you know what I just made you copy?"

"Hai, sensei. It's the code for each of the twelve hand signs." Naruto answered.

Ginrei, for the first time since the lesson began, smiled, "Yes…yes, yes yes!"

Naruto watched in avid fascination as his teacher stood up and jumped for joy while he kept on intoning, "Yes, yes, yes!" over and over again. He honestly wondered what was so special about the answer that he gave him that it could make the normally calm and quite reserved Uzumaki jump for joy.

"Yes! I finally have a student that isn't a complete idiot!" Ginrei's proclamation had Naruto face-faulting almost immediately after he said it.

"Naruto, my boy…" the man spoke in a very excitable manner, "Not only do you know how to perfectly write kanji and Fūinjutsu symbols at such a young age, but you can read them too!"

"Hai." Naruto said, picking himself up from the ground as he went back into his kneeling position, "I've been able to do so for the last year now."

"Really!" Ginrei asked, with a very happy expression on his face. He was beaming at the prospect of all of the things he could teach Naruto.

"Hai." Naruto said calmly, knowing that at least one of them had to remain calm in this rather awkward situation.

"That's amazing! So you understand what most people don't about the basics of Fūinjutsu?" Ginrei asked in his very excitable manner.

"That every seal is just basically the twelve hand signs written down in coded format." Naruto answered with a small smile on his face.

"Exactly!" Ginrei exclaimed as he faux-pulled out his own hair, "How come you can understand that, but my idiot sons could not?"

"Huh, sons?" Naruto asked, catching on to what Ginrei said.

"Yes, sons." the man answered, "What? Did you think I only had one prick-head of a son?"

"Pffft!" Naruto couldn't stop himself from laughing when Ginrei said that, completely catching him off-guard with how he called Jin a prick.

"There's another idiot roaming around the world carrying my genes." Ginrei informed the blonde, "His name's Ashina."

"Hahahaha." Naruto wasn't laughing at Ashina, whoever that was. He was instead laughing at Jin being called a prick-head, something he couldn't get off his mind since he whole-heartedly agreed. The thing that made all of this that much funnier to the blonde was the fact that it was Jin's father that had said it.

Ginrei just smiled seeing the boy finally break off into a full fit of laughter. He joined in too a second later.

Ginrei, in Naruto's opinion, was finally showing that he was a true Uzumaki. Despite being so highly respected, he did not really give a damn about status. If he was willing to jump for joy and make himself a fool in front of his student, then the man was awesome in Naruto's books.

After the duo had calmed down from their collective fits of laughter, Ginrei looked at Naruto and said, "Naruto, I want you to do something for me."

"What is it, sensei." the boy said, schooling his features back into his neutral facial expression.

"Smile more often." the wizened man said.

He then proceeded towards the door that lead out of his study and opened it. After doing so, he turned to his still kneeling protégé and said, "Tomorrow, after your training with my son, I want you to meet me by the front gates."

Naruto's face gained a questioning appearance to it, not even having the slightest idea as to why his teacher wanted them to meet outside. It wasn't like they could practise Fūinjutsu outdoors, especially since it's so windy, "Huh? Why?"

"Because we're going somewhere, you idiot!" the man said, before he shut the door behind him, leaving the boy in his study.

" …O-okay."

* * *

Naruto trudged towards his room feeling slightly refreshed after a day of training for the first time in – since his training stint had begun here last week. Upon walking up to his door, he noticed a shadow that looked like a giant silhouette of the only person younger than him that was within the confines of the house dancing on the paper door.

Sliding the paper door open, he was greeted by an empty room, not seeing a single follicle of Mito's red hair anywhere, before he walked into the room. Quicker than most would expect an eight year old to move, Naruto's arm shot up, catching broom stick that nearly hit him on the head, before he pulled on it really hard.

"Whoa!" he heard Mito's voice say as she was pulled from the ceiling she had been clinging onto with the soles of her feet. He quickly caught her, making sure that he held on really tight, while also making sure that he didn't fall to the ground.

"How?" Mito asked in an annoyed voice, "Every time I do this. You find a way of seeing me."

Naruto just smiled at her as he patted all of the wrinkles off her kimono, "Well, just as I have told you before, I can sense you. Remember?"

Mito huffed and said, "I don't believe you."

Naruto just smirked at her and said, "How else are you going to explain me being able to catch you every single time?"

"I don't know!" Mito threw her hands into the air in exasperation, "But it definitely cannot be because you can sense me!"

"…Maybe you're right." Naruto said with a sly smile on his face, "Maybe it's not that I can sense you, but rather that you're so bad at stealth that I don't need to."

Swoosh.

Naruto was gone quicker than Mito could throw a punch. By the time the girl had realised that he had evaded her, he was already plopping himself down onto his futon.

"You know, Tou-san designed this really cool thing called a bed. It's way more comfortable than a futon. You guys should get one." Naruto said as he crossed his hands behind his head while lying down on his back.

"Bed?" Mito said in confusion, previous verbal-turned-slightly-physical spar already forgotten, "What the heck is that?"

Naruto answered the girl as she plopped herself next to him, "Okay, you know how my dad is a carpenter, right?"

"Yes?"

"Yeah, well, he came up with this really nice piece of furniture that's meant for sleeping purposes. It's called a bed…"

"That's a terrible name." Mito said.

"I know, I was waiting for you to say that before I continued. Every one, kaa-chan and I included, think it's a bad name, but tou-chan doesn't really care. His invention, so he's naming it as far as he's concerned." Naruto said.

"Okay…" Mito drawled out a bit, "But you still haven't told me about what makes it so special that it could beat out a futon."

"Oh, it's simple." Naruto said, quickly jumping to his feet, startling Mito a little with the action, before he placed his hand at his waist and said, "Image a futon this size."

And then it all dawned onto Mito exactly how much better a bed was. She may have been seven, but even she understood what Naruto was implying.

"Oh Kami-sama…" Mito exclaimed.

"Exactly." Naruto said, plopping himself down onto the futon once more.

"So how much does your father sell this…bird-"

"-It's _bed_."

"Yes, bed – thing of his?"

"Um…I'm not really sure. I just know that he made it for every room in the house and he's trying to find a way to mass produce it so that everyone can have one." Naruto answered honestly.

"That all sounds complicated." Mito said.

"Not really…I guess I understand where he is coming from." Naruto said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's just that I'm an inventor as well, so I kind of understand what he's going through." Naruto said.

"You invented something?" Mito had eyes as wide as saucers at this point.

"Yeah – but do not tell this to anyone. Okay?" Naruto quickly warned his friend, and she nodded in response to his warning.

"Show me." the girl said excitedly.

Naruto saw the look she had on her face. It was one of wonder and awe. She was desperate to see his invention, and while he may not be very skilled in the art of forgery and inventions, he had his own unique knack for it. And he wanted to show off a bit.

"All right."

"Yes!" Mito fist-pumped the air in victory.

"But remember, you can't tell anyone." Naruto warned once more. This time though, Mito made the motion of a zip closing over her mouth, before she opened it and swallowed the key.

"How are you able to swallow the key if you just zipped your mouth?"

"What?"

"Never mind." Naruto got onto his feet once again, and this time he brandished something. Something that he had been tinkering with since he first gained full mastery of it in its original form.

"A yo-yo?" Mito asked him as she saw that he held one in his hand. In all honesty, she was let down. She expected something she had never seen before, not a worn-out yo-yo.

"Shhhh!" was all the warning Naruto gave, before he lightly tapped his thumb on the yo-yo's surface, before he threw it at the wooden door of the walk-in closet and it embedded itself onto it.

Mito's eyes went wide when she saw just how it had embedded itself onto the door of the closet. The yo-yo's once smooth surface, now had metallic spikes jutting out in every direction.

"H-how?" was all Mito could say as she stared at the yo-yo in awe.

"It has a few problems." Naruto said, not really answering Mito, "For one, in battle someone could cut the string I use and make it useless."

Naruto lightly pulled on the extended string of the yo-yo as if to emphasise his point.

"Two, the blades don't know when to retract." At this, he pulled out the yo-yo in earnest, getting it to clunk dully on the wooden floor boards, before he walked over to it, picked it up, and inspected it for a second, "This means that simply pulling it back towards me in the heat of battle for when I want to use it again would make it next to impossible because it means that it could end up cutting me."

"Which kind of makes it useless." Mito surmised, getting Naruto to nod at her.

"Yeah, pretty much." Naruto said.

"You know what, your yo-yo has lost all of its cool points." Mito said cheekily

"Cool points?" Naruto said questioningly, "How are you and I friends again?"

Swoosh.

Once more Mito had missed her blonde target as he had evaded her and had proceeded to sit down on his futon and work on his yo-yo once again.

"I'm going to sleep. You suck." Mito said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"So says miss I-Suck-At-Stealth." Naruto answered without looking up as he worked the string of his yo-yo.

"Whatever, mister – uh...Rrrrraaaah! Come on!" Mito said in frustration, "One day I will develop a good comeback for you."

"And I'll be waiting." Naruto spoke without looking up once more.

There were a few moments of near-perfect silence, with the only thing that could be heard being Mito's feet shuffling, before Naruto heard the unmistakable sound of the paper door being slid open, and Mito's feet shuffling some more.

"Good night." she said to him.

He looked up and smiled at her before he waved out his own good night.

Then she shut the paper door.

* * *

To be continued

* * *

 **And so ends another chapter, one filled with good ol' Uzumaki family dynamics. This chapter featured a one week time skip. I wonder how long the next chapter's time skip shall be?**

 **Chapter four will definitely get your blood pumping, that much I can attest to. I'm editing it out and I really want to post it along with this one, but I can't. It's still too rough. So you'll have to wait a few days before it drops like my imaginary mixtape.**

 **As always, like, share review people. I need this to feed my kittens!**

 **Just joking, don't own any kittens. But I want at least one.**

 **Anyway, I guess that's where I'll leave things for now.**

 **I'm out.**


	4. Chapter 4: Uzumaki

Chapter Four: Uzumaki

"Hurry up, will ya?" Ginrei's irritated voice permeated through the thick trees of the forest.

"Just as sec, Ginrei-sama." Naruto replied. He came bursting out of the tree line, hopping from one tree branch to the next.

"What took you so long?" the old man said, with a slightly raised eyebrow.

Naruto did not know what to say at first. A small part of him wanted to lie and blame his tardiness on something else, but he quickly settled for the truth, "…Mito."

"Ah." was all the old man said as his face shone in realisation. He quickly turned around after that, his clothes billowing slightly from the sudden motion, before he said, "Well then, follow me."

Naruto smiled a little as he followed the man he had taken a huge liking to over the past week. He was honestly giddy with anticipation as he quickly caught up with Ginrei and they walked at a relatively calm pace. Nothing was said between the little boy and the old man as they walked next to each other in the forest surrounding the home that they lived in.

The path that they took soon turned downhill. On either side of this downhill slope the trees thinned out and in their place were houses. The houses that they encountered first were almost as regal-looking as the house that belonged to the main family. The further they traversed down the hill, the less extravagant the houses became until they just became bland copy cats of each other.

The houses higher up the hill were for the more important members of the Uzumaki clan, while the ones that were lower were for the run of the mill Uzumaki shinobi.

Naruto saw his parents' house amongst the lower section of the hill. Despite his mother being one of the strongest Uzumaki on the island, at least that's what she always said, she was not of any royal patronage, and as such she was housed alongside all of the less important shinobi.

Naruto found it funny that all of the old members of the clan lived higher up the hill. Didn't walking up the hill cause any back problems?

Looking at the man he walked next to, he got his answer.

The duo soon reached a pair of giant wooden doors that were open. This was known as the Great Gateway. It acted as a separator between the Uzumaki clan and what was on the other side of the gates.

The Whirling City.

The Whiling City acted as the main business hub of the island. People that came from far and wide in order to do business on Uzu no Kuni always wound up in this city. It ensured that no one that wasn't an Uzumaki stepped foot onto their clan's grounds. Naruto and Ginrei calmly walked through the small CBD of Uzu no Kuni, taking in the many house-size stores that made up the CBD.

There were stores that specialised in things such as clothing, food and shinobi supplies. Naruto had been here so many times that he could map out the entire business district with ease. It had been engraved in his mind, which was good because he would one day be stationed as one of its protectors.

As the duo continued their brisk walk, they were greeted by many of the civilian store owners and the shinobi that were on duty, serving as watchdogs. The Uzumaki had a unique relationship with people. Due to being known as the "hippy clan", a lot of civilians wanted to do business with the Uzumaki because they trusted them. They were known to be a just and fair clan, always looking out for one another, never ever backstabbing anyone.

There was a running joke within the shinobi world that the Uzumaki did not even have a single bad bone in them. Of course this would be preposterous in Naruto's own opinion. If that really were the case then the Uzumaki would be dead already. They were shinobi, just like everyone else. Due to their strategic positioning as the only clan on Uzu no Kuni, they were better at hiding their skeletons than other clans on the main land were.

According to his mother, the Uzumaki are the only clan in the world to have an entire city directly under their care. In the main land, especially in Hi no Kuni, the clans that reside there aren't allowed anywhere near their country's capital, unless if they were invited by the Daimyo.

The entire place was guarded by a samurai force that, while individually they were weaker than their shinobi counter-parts, they more than made up for it with their sheer numbers. All of Hi no Kuni's clans would need to come together and work as one if they ever wanted to take control of the capital.

Unfortunately for them, there was just too much bad blood between them all for such a thing to happen.

"Naruto!" Naruto's head snapped towards Ginrei, who had a slightly irritated look on his face as he looked at him.

"Hai?"

"Finally!" Ginrei exasperated, "What the heck were you thinking about that could take so much of your time?"

"Nothing much." Naruto said honestly, before he noticed that they were standing in front of a two story building that had a gigantic swirl on it. The swirl had a scroll running diagonally across it.

"Wait, what are we doing at the library?" Naruto asked as he turned to look at his travelling companion.

"We're here to see a friend of mine." Ginrei said with a small smile on her face.

'Great.', Naruto thought, 'Probably an old man.'

And how right he was. After they had entered the building, they went straight to a man that sat at the front desk of the library. The man wore a red kimono top, dark pants and wooden geta.

"Shimonosuke, old friend." Ginrei said with warmth in his voice.

"Ginrei, you old goat." Shimonosuke said as he got up from his seat and he walked around it in order to stand in front of it.

"How are you, my friend." Ginrei asked the man as they hugged briefly. Naruto just stood back, not really finding it appropriate to come between these old friends.

"Don't act like you care about my well being." Shimonosuke said this with a smile on his face.

Ginrei feigned being struck by something in his heart as he clutched onto his yukata's chest region, "Ow, that hurts."

"Good." Shimonosuke said as he folded his arms and said, "It shouldn't take you two whole years before you check up on me, you old goat."

Ginrei pouted and mumbled, "You could have gone up to see me, you know."

"And risk hurting my back?" Shimonosuke said, getting Naruto to pat himself on the back for his earlier deduction on the Uzumaki elders having difficulty traversing up the clan's grounds, "No thanks. So who's the gaki?"

Ginrei, quicker than Naruto would expect one to drop a pout, said, "He's blonde and he's an Uzumaki."

Shimonosuke had a long pensive look on his face as he racked his brain for the answer, before his face lit up after a few seconds and he said, "Wait, this is Kushina's gaki?"

"Yep." Ginrei said.

"So you're the famous blonde gaki that has everyone's tongues wagging." Shimonosuke said as he closed in on Naruto, before he placed his wrinkled hand on Naruto's blonde hair.

"Hai." was all Naruto could say as Shimonosuke ruffled his hair.

"Good kid, good kid." Shimonosuke said, "So what's your name?"

"Naruto."

"Ah, Naruto. Good name. So was it your idea to come and see me, eh Naruto?"

"Um…no. I don't even know you, sir." Naruto's answer resulted in something Naruto thought he would never see; an old man sulk.

Ginrei chose this as the appropriate moment to laugh at his old friend, find the entire interaction between his student and his old friend to be quite hilarious.

"Well, that was quite funny." the former clan leader said, "Well, it was my idea actually."

"What do you want?" Shimonosuke said spitefully.

"No need to be so cold, old friend." Ginrei said as he stroked his beard, "I came here to ask for your help with something."

"Isn't that always the case with you, always asking for help." Shimonosuke said, before he turned and faced Naruto and said, "Even as kids he couldn't even wipe his own behind without asking for help"

"Pfft!" Naruto broke into a fit of giggles at that.

"Hey, that's not true!" Ginrei said in outrage, before his face took on the shade of a tomato as he said, "It was just those annoying servants my father had around that wanted to do it."

"Ha ha ha ha ha… " Naruto, at this point, was holding his stomach and laughing his ass off.

Ginrei shifted his focus from the floor to Naruto in a split second, "You shouldn't laugh so much otherwise you'll find yourself mysteriously doing training at three a.m."

Naruto sobered up really quickly.

"Anyway, old friend," Ginrei said as he turned his attention to Shimonosuke, "I have a request."

"What is it?" Shimonosuke said in a grumpy manner.

"Ninjutsu 101." Ginrei replied with a serious expression.

"For the boy?" Shimonosuke said, pointing to Naruto with his head.

"Yep."

"When should I pop by?"

"Whenever you're free."

"Alright; but why don't you do it?"

"Shimo, we both know that my techniques are a bit too advances for a 101 class."

"… You're just lazy, aren't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

The two old men just stared each other down for a few seconds, before a smile broke out over Shimonosuke's face, "I'll be there this afternoon for our first lesson."

"Alright." Ginrei said, before he turned to Naruto, who had been silently observing their conversation from the sidelines for a bit, "You, we're leaving now."

Naruto just nimbly nodded his head before he exited the building behind Ginrei all the while thinking about old men that behaved like children.

XXXXX

Uzumaki Main Family Household

Whenever one thought about what it might be like to be the heiress of a clan, they would surely think along the lines of being spoiled rotten while also being spoon fed everything that there was to know about the shinobi world. While that would be true for some, it did not apply to Uzumaki Mito.

She … she was a special case.

"Again." Jin's voice broke through the silence that was within the darkened room.

Mito shut her eyes and did as she had been taught ever since she was a five years old. She calmed her breathing to a point where it seemed as if she was not breathing at all, before she slowly started to extend her sixth sense.

Whenever one thought about what made sensory shinobi special, they just assumed that it was a combination of chakra and good luck that allowed them to pick out things that the normal five senses could not.

The Uzumaki clan had a different ideology altogether when it came to how sensory skills were to be perceived. They did not view them as some special ability that involved the manipulation of chakra through specialised means, rather it was an extension of a person. It was the natural instinct that you had as a person that told you whether you were in a fight or flight situation.

This ideology had been passed down to young Mito, who was currently situated in a room filled to the brim with special fūin that made it nearly impossible for one to sense where a person might be, within the confines of the room.

"You're twenty six feet to my left, tou-sama." Mito said.

If one could see through the darkness, they would have been able to see something that resembled a smile on Jin's face.

"Not good enough. I'm actually twenty four feet to your left." the usually stoic man said to his daughter.

"So?" Mito said, with a pout on her face, "I'm off by two feet."

"Exactly." While Jin found it beyond admirable that his daughter was as good as she was for her age at sensing targets, especially within the Black Room, he still wanted to push Mito beyond this level, "A miscalculation by even a single foot is all it takes to ruin mission and result in your death."

Mito's pout dropped from her face, and it took a more neutral look, "I understand, tou-sama."

"Good." Jin said, "We're done for today."

As soon as he said that, the seals within the darkened room glowed green and the natural lighting of the room returned.

Mito was dressed in a form hugging, long sleeved, white shirt and a pair of matching pants. Her father was dressed in the standard kimono he wore everyday whenever he was not on any mission.

The man that lead the Uzumaki clan looked at his slightly sweating daughter with a smile on his face and said, "You are progressing well, Mito."

"Thank you, tou-sama." As much as Mito enjoyed the complement, she sensed a _but_ coming along.

"But," she internally congratulated herself for being on the money, "you aren't at the level that I expect you to be."

" … Thanks?" Mito was never really sure about how to take her father's words. He could make a complaint seem like a compliment and vice versa. It astounded her how someone could do such a thing.

Mito turned on her heels and started heading for the exit. Her training was done for today. Now she could go and play with Naruto.

"Mito."

Jin, as pleased as he was at his daughters progress, had something that he wanted to ask his daughter, and from the look on his face, he was not really sure about how to go about it. It was a mixture between a constipated samurai and a sick patient lying on his death bed.

"What do you think of Naruto?" Jin decided to just rip the plaster off in one go.

"Naruto?" Mito asked her father, with all of her confusion written on her face. Mito may have been seven years old, but even she could tell that her father did not particularly like Naruto, and she had thought of doing something about it during the weekend he was away. She had asked her grandfather about it, telling him that she did not really like the tension between her new-found friend and her father, but the Uzumaki elder quickly shot her down, saying that this was an issue she should stay out of.

"Yes, Naruto. The short boy you seem to play with everyday." Jin said, "Or do you have memory loss?"

Was that a joke? Mito wondered as she stared at her father. He was never really a man of comedy, or anything remotely fun for that matter. He was always serious.

"I know who you're talking about, tou-sama … it's just surprising."

"What is?"

"You asking me about him?"

"He's your friend …or am I mistaken?"

"No-no, nope. He is my friend."

"Okay. Now, answer my question."

"Well …" Mito began, unsure of how to progress, "… he's really smart."

"I know that." Indeed, Naruto was very smart, especially for someone his age.

"Then what do you want me to say?!" Mito was becoming frustrated really fast. Her father seemed to be asking something beyond the level of someone that you've only known for a week.

"Watch your tone." he said sternly, making Mito lower her head. Her father was an adult, and as she had been taught by her grandfather and her mother before she passed away, she ought to respect all adults.

"I'm sorry." Mito said quietly.

Jin looked at Mito's saddened form with a calculated gaze. It would seem he wouldn't be getting what he wanted from her at the moment.

"You're free to go."

No sooner had the words left his mouth, Mito was already out of the room. Jin, now all alone within the confines of the Black Room, let out a small sigh. He did not like how his daughter had left his presence. It was disrespectful, sure, but that wasn't what he did not like about it. He didn't like how she left the room with a body language of someone that was afraid of him.

That is not how a daughter should be with her father. A daughter should love her father unconditionally to the point where fear would be the last thing on her mind. He had already lost one child, and Mito was his last born.

His last hope.

His last shred of humanity.

XXXXX

Uzumaki clan grounds, three days later

Nature was silent. Ginrei was silent. Shimonosuke was silent. Naruto was silent … not really. Moving at his top speed, Naruto's hands blurred into a myriad of hand seals, before he rested on the ram hand seal.

"Shunshin no Jutsu." Naruto's pace quickened exponentially. To a normal civilian it would seem as if he were simply appearing and disappearing from existence with short bursts in between, but to the two men that were watching the young boy train they could see him just fine. To them, he may as well have been walking at a normal, brisk pace.

Naruto shimmered into existence next to the old men, hyperventilating as the sweat on his brow was visible for them to see.

"Ha ha, well done my boy." Shimonosuke said, "To get this jutsu down in three days is no easy feat."

"Indeed." Ginrei concurred.

"Yes. Why I remember it took ol' Ginger-breath over here nearly two years to get it down." Shimonosuke said, laughing at the look of betrayal on Ginrei's face.

"Oi!" Ginrei said, "Watch what you say in front of my student, you old prune. Do you want him to lose all sense of respect for me?"

"Ha ha ha … what respect?" Shimonosuke said, moving away from Ginrei as he pointed a finger at Naruto.

Ginrei's head quickly whipped into the general direction of his student, and he found him trying very hard to stifle a laugh.

"You better not …" Ginrei warned the blonde Uzumaki, finger raised and pointing at the boy.

"Pfft!" Naruto's cheeks were red at this point, trying to hold in his laughter.

"Good boy." Ginrei said as if he had been talking to a dog. He then turned to face Shimonosuke, with a smug smile on his face, "See, I still got it."

"For now." was all the administrator said.

"Ha- I mean, Uh-hum." Naruto corrected himself after a small bit of laughter escaped, "Ginrei-sama?

"What is it?"

"Um, I was wondering if you could help me out with an issue of mine."

"Oh, don't worry about that." Shimonosuke said, "He'll help you, but only when your training is complete for the day."

"You mean we're not done?" Naruto asked.

"Of course not. It's only…" Shimonosuke looked up at the sky, "Two o'clock on the dot."

Naruto looked up into the sky and silently tried to look at whatever it was that allowed Shimonosuke to be able to tell time just by looking at the sky.

"Hey, I'm down here, short stuff."

Naruto looked at the old man with a mixture of disdain and disappointment. Disdain at being called out on his height, and disappointment and not being able to see what Shimonosuke used to tell the time.

"Okay…" the old ninjutsu teacher said while rubbing his hands together, "Now we're getting to something fun. Elemental ninjutsu."

"Wait!" Ginrei immediately intervened, "Isn't it a bit too early to introduce him to that concept."

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna teach him nature transformation."

"Then what are you doing teaching him elemental ninjutsu at age eight?" Ginrei al but shouted.

"My old man had a stupid, but very effective philosophy…'start them young, and they grow into it." Shimonosuke with pride in his voice.

"Uzumaki Kotetsu was a loon."

"True as that may be, but he was the best at it." Shimonosuke said, not taking the slightest bit of offence at Ginrei's words, before he quickly added, "And I don't mean being a loon. I mean teaching."

"Oh really?"

"Yes."

"How so?"

"Look, if you're gonna argue with me about whether or not my father made a good teacher or not,then we might as well argue about which vegetable is better between an potato and an onion."

Whatever retort Ginrei had quickly died in his throat.

"I hate you." Ginrei said, turning sideways like a child and ignoring the smug look Shimonosuke sported.

"I know you do."

There was a small bout of silence in the clearing that they were training in, "Potato."

And then it was gone.

"Onion." Shimonosuke said.

"Potato."

"Onion!"

"Po-ta-to!" Ginrei said while grinding his teeth and slamming his forehead into Shimonosuke's.

"How? Everyone knows that an onion is the key component to any good meal!"

"Yes, but you can't eat it alone, now can you?"

"And then what? Die of Starch! No thanks!"

"How about I kill you for disrespecting the potato?"

"How when I would have done that to you first?"

"Ahem!" Naruto's voice broke through the bickering old men, "How about we get back to what's really important?"

"Uh …potatoes?" Ginrei answered.

"No! Training!"

That seemed to sober up the two Uzumaki elders as their argument became a thing of the past.

To Naruto, who had been watching the entire exchange without so much as a single interjection on his part until the very end, he couldn't believe that he was looking at two highly respected members of the Uzumaki clan. They behaved like a bunch of spoiled brats.

Respect was definitely going down, fast.

"Anyway, Naruto," that brought him back to reality, "Time to get cracking."

A simple nod was sent Shimonosuke's way.

"Place your hand out." Shimonosuke said, and Naruto complied, "Palm first!"

"What are you doing?" the young boy asked his elder. Shimonosuke had taken Naruto's hand and he had placed it on top of his left palm, while he had taken his right index finger and placed it on Naruto's palm.

"What I'm doing is something my father invented for detecting chakra nature." the elder Uzumaki explained, "I'm going to begin by channelling my chakra into yours, and then you're going to just channel chakra into your hand. Can you do that?"

A nod followed the old man's question.

"Good." was all he said, before he sent a small stream of chakra into Naruto's palm. Naruto replied by doing as he had been instructed by Shimonosuke and he channelled his chakra into the man's index finger.

As soon as there was contact between both of their chakra natures, Naruto felt a weird sensation coursing through his hand. While it was not an unpleasant one, it was a sensation that was not really welcomed by his body. He tried to quantify it by comparing it with something else, but he honestly could not. It was just so strange.

The duo had stayed silent for a few moments, with only the small gust of wind blowing through the clearing and the quiet hum of their chakra making any sort of sound. Shimonosuke eventually spoke after a minute had passed, "Ah, water."

"You sound disappointed, sensei." Naruto said.

"Not disappointed, just tired." Shimonosuke said.

"I guess you would be if you lived on an island nation filled with water users…I'm sure you'd like some variety." Naruto said, clearly catching what his ninjutsu sensei was alluding to.

"You're a smart one, eh?" Shimonosuke said as he let of of Naruto's hand, stopping the exercise.

"I thought we had already established that, Shimo." Ginrei decided to join in on their conversation.

"True, but even I am surprised by just how smart he is. He speaks with the mental clarity of a very experienced individual." Shimonosuke spoke while walking away from Naruto.

"Careful, Shimo, we don't want to inflate his ego."

"What ego? He's too small to have one." Shimonosuke laughed a bit.

"Age does not mean anything. I ought to know, I raised a very egotistical son."

"Your son was not egotistical. He was just spoilt rotten by a very bad parent."

Ginrei's facial features took on a slightly dark turn, "Are you calling me a bad parent?"

"No." Shimonosuke said calmly, not the least affected by his friend's dark aura.

"Good. We both know I am a very good parent."

"Yes, but your wife was not."

'Oh, shit.' Naruto thought. He may have been young, but even he knew that Uzumaki Kasumi was someone that Ginrei loved more than even his own children. He knew that you never ever insulted the woman's memory, even if you were not in front of Ginrei. You were basically asking to die. Yet here was Shimonosuke, not giving a rat's ass, and doing so anyway. Maybe he had gone senile with old age.

During the few seconds it had taken Naruto to remember everything related to the former clan head's wife, an eerie silence had descended upon the clearing. It was a silence that spoke of many things that could happen as soon as it ended. Be it good or bad. In this case anyone that was there could surmise that something bad was about to happen.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" and then they would be proven wrong by the sound of laughter that erupted from the two Uzumaki elders.

"Ha ha ha ha…oh, that is a good one, Shimo." Ginrei spoke in between fits of laughter while clutching his sides.

"I'm so- Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha – sorry, but Kasumi was te- te- terribbbble with kids!" Shimonosuke was also finding it very hard to speak in between his fits of laughter.

"She was so bad – oh, ha ha ha, so bad that she dropped Jin when he was just a month old."

"Maybe that – that's why – ha ha ha ha ha – he is such an egghead!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" the old men laughed so hard after that that they ended up on the floor, just laughing their butt's off.

Naruto, who had been looking at the old men from the sidelines, decided to just let them be. Uzumaki geezers were just too weird for him. They behaved more like kids than actual adults.

"Um, I guess I'll just leave you two to it then." Naruto said, referencing to their bout of laughter that they did not seem to be calming down from soon. He slowly made his way out of the clearing, disappearing into the trees that surround the massive clearing, on his way home.

The laughter immediately died down as soon as Naruto was out of their sight. The old men looked at each other with very serious expressions that were not something that one would have associated with either of them a few moments ago.

"So," Ginrei began as he got up from the ground and dusted himself off, "what did you want to talk about?"

Shimonosuke mimicked his friend, standing up and dusting himself off as well. One of the perks of having a best friend of more than five year was that you tended to develop your own secret system of codes. With the two of them, however, it was a full blown language with how long they have known each other.

"The boy's chakra." the aged administrator said, thinking about how he had secretly sent a small signal to Ginrei while scanning Naruto's chakra for his chakra nature.

Ginrei nodded at his friend to continue.

"There's a strangeness to it." Shimonosuke said, trying to find the proper words to say what he wanted. The technique his father created was something that was meant to decipher a person's chakra nature. One of it's requirements was that you needed to have a certain level of mastery in the five basic chakra natures, and Shimonosuke had that.

"My friend, stop beating around the bush." Ginrei said.

"He's…"

 **To be Continued**

 **I wonder what the heck was discovered with Naruto. Is it good? Is it bad? Can't wait.**

 **Anyway, like, leave a review, you know the drill.**


	5. Chapter 5: Arrival

Chapter Five: Arrival

The glorious natural radiance of the sun graced the people of Uzu no Kuni with much fervour. It acted as an apparatus that told people that it was time to wake up. It was time to meet whatever life threw at you head on. It was time to try and get your life in order.

"Why do we have to get up so early?" a very annoyed Mito voiced out.

Well, at least it did so for those that weren't already up.

"Because it's the early bird that catches the worm, Mito-chan." Minato answered.

"Yeah, but we're not birds." Mito's annoyance continued to make itself heard.

"Ha ha ha ha! Yes, well it's still a good policy to apply to everyday life." Minato said as he lead the way down a dirt street. Behind him were Mito and Naruto, and they were wearing what would be considered their civvies. Mito was dressed in a kimono that went past her knees and but never quite reached her ankles, while Naruto wore a pair of dark pants and a kimono top.

They were inside the The Whirling City, headed towards a destination that, whenever he thought about, put a smile on Minato's face.

"So, um…where exactly are we going?" Mito asked after a moment of silence.

Naruto looked at his best friend with a small smile on his face. Ever since Mito had come home with him, she has been subjected to a totally different lifestyle, a near perfect juxtaposition on the opposite side of the social scales. While Mito was not an entitled and insufferable little girl, she was however, a really spoilt one. Her father may have acted like a drill sergeant when it came to Naruto, but he was never truly as hard with Mito.

She had the pleasure of waking up after sunrise. For Naruto, it was a luxury that rarely let itself be known in his life. His mom, being the professional that she was, only when she felt like it, and his dad, being the workaholic that he was, always woke him up extremely early. Living with Mito's father and grandfather hadn't done anything to change that at all.

"Oh, you'll see." Minato's smile grew just an extra inch. They walked past three more house-sized buildings, before they eventually came across what looked like a slightly abandoned building. It had all of the tell-tale signs of being abandoned, which included dust that hung on the windows that was so thick that it obscured their view of whatever was inside.

"Tou-san," Naruto exclaimed, with surprise evident in his tone, "Is this what I think it is?"

"Is this what?" Mito asked, looking between the two blonde males that were looking at the old building.

"It sure is, son." Minato's pride could be heard in his voice when he said that, " _This_ is my shop."

Naruto and Mito's awe was voiced in one word, "Whoa!"

"I know it's not too pleasing on the eye…" Minato began, stuffing his right hand into his pocket and producing a piece of paper, with something Naruto immediately recognised as a seal on it, "…but with the right amount of hard work, I'm sure we can turn this place around."

Minato placed the piece of paper on the door and he stepped back. A small blue hue was exuded by the seal on the paper, before it died down and the ink moved on the paper. Naruto may have been someone that had only studied the famed Uzumaki art of Fūinjutsu for few months, but the inscription on the paper was as plain as day to him. It changed from _close_ to _open_.

Then his mind immediately backtracked to something his father said.

"Wait, did you say _we_?"

Naruto looked up and saw his father place one hand on the door, before he turned to look at him with a soft smile on his face, "You heard right, son. We."

With that said, Minato proceeded to push the door open, allowing the world to get a full view of what would soon be his base of operations. Dust immediately assaulted the trio, making them cough and sneeze as they tried swat the dust away from their faces by using their hands, while making their way into the shop.

Naruto looked at the shop, finding it to be pretty bare, but with a lot of space. He could definitely see why his father bought, _or was it rent out?_ , the building despite its dilapidated state. With the right amount of people, it could become a proper shop, one where he could operate out of nicely. Knowing his father, he'd probably include a room for his inventions that weren't ready to be shown to the general public.

Minato coughed a bit, before he said, "So what do you guys think?"

Mito looked at the dusty form of Minato with watery eyes and said, "It's dusty, that's for sure."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I couldn't agree with you more, Mito-chan." Minato then turned to look at his son.

"Sochi, you know what to do."

Naruto quickly drew back his right sleeve, revealing a wrist band with fūin on it. With a quick application of chakra, the wrist band was covered in a harmless white smoke, before it disappeared and was soon replaced by a normal-sized scroll. He put the scroll on the floor and quickly did what his did with the seal on his wrist band. This time though, instead of a scroll, he got cleaning utensils.

"Ah, so this is what mom put in the scroll?" Naruto exclaimed. He had been given the scroll by his mother to put into the special wristband seal that Ginrei had given to him. She didn't say anything beyond, "Open that scroll when your father tells you to, okay?"

Naruto figured, at that moment, that she probably knew that he and Mito were going to spend the entire day cleaning, judging by the amount of dust and dirt within the building.

In front of Naruto were three brooms, three mops and three buckets. One set for each of them it would seem. Along with that there was what appeared to be some sort of dried cow dung stuffed into a tin. One for each person. Not a lot of people outside the domestic worker field knew exactly what was used to shine floors, but Naruto did. Dried cow dung, with added chemical agents, was especially good on cement floors, like the one underneath all of the dust and dirt that they stood on.

"Alright guys," Minato's voice brought him back to the real world, "take a broom and let's start sweeping."

And so Mito and, to a lesser extent, Naruto were subjected to the tiring parts of being a child, doing something you did not want to do, out of respect for your elders.

* * *

Uzumaki Clan Main Household

Sitting within the confines of the small library that existed within the main Uzumaki household, Ginrei was at a loss about a certain subject matter. Several subject matters plagued his mind, but the most pressing one of them all involved the Senju, and the nature of their visit.

The three month deadline ended tomorrow, and knowing the kind of man Senju Butsuma is, he wouldn't be a second late. He was a very punctual individual. Many saw him as the epitome of what a shinobi, especially a clan head, should aspire to be. His own son, Jin, took after the man in some regard, mainly his strict nature, but beyond that he was his own man.

For all of the good parts of being a shinobi that the Senju clan head inspired, he also inspired the bad. He was a very shrewd man, often doing the most underhanded of things in order to make sure that whatever objectives he had were fulfilled. If one were looking for something that epitomised the model shinobi that every clan wished to create, they just had to point to Senju Butsuma.

"Ryo for your thoughts?" Jin's voice cut through the silence that had reigned over the small library that made up Ginrei's study.

Looking up at his son, who currently stood in front of the doorway of the library, Ginrei nodded his head.

Jin took a few steps into his father's study, before speaking about whatever it was that he thought was plaguing his father's mind, "The Senju…or to be more specific, Butsuma."

Another nod was all Jin received.

The man proceeded to sit down in front of his father, cross-legged.

"The man is dangerous." Jin spoke with a hint of worry in his tone.

"That he is, my child." Ginrei replied. While the father and son duo did not really see eye-to-eye on most issues, there were times when they did. This was one such time. Senju Butsuma put everyone in the shinobi world on edge. No one truly trusted him. Not even his distant cousins.

"So what about his visit has you so worried. Knowing you, you already have a few theories in mind." Jin spoke with assurance. He knew his father well. Not as well as he would have wanted to, but he knew him well enough to know that his nickname of _Ginrei the wise_ wasn't something he just picked up like picking a stone. He earned it.

"I believe he may be coming here to drum up some sort of deal with us, one which could see us being drawn into a war with the Uchiha and whoever the hell-else they are fighting on the mainland."

"What about the Bijū? Don't you think he'll want to talk about that as well?" Jin questioned, placing a hand on the wisp of a beard that he had growing on his chin. _I need to shave, again_ were words that rang through his head.

"Yes, well there is a possibility that something like that could happen. We all know that he's biting at the opportunity to eradicate all who stand in his way. With a Bijū backing him, there wouldn't be any that could stop him."

"Except us." Jin threw what he and his father knew to be the truth into the conversation. When all was said and done, the only people in the world that would have any shot of taking on a Bijū-backed Senju Butsuma would be the Uzumaki. Even then, victory was not really guaranteed. It also wouldn't be easy due to them being family – somewhat.

Over the last ten years though, even the word family has started to blur a little thanks to the tyrannical Senju leader.

"Indeed." If a Bijū was indeed what Senju Butsuma was hoping to get, then the world was in for it. Uzumaki included.

* * *

Minato's Store – Afternoon

Cleaning up the future store of Namikaze Minato had been surprisingly easier than expected. By twelve, they had already finished sweeping and mopping the place. Three hours, and lots of perfume-scented dung floor polish later, they were now relaxing outside the building, with an ice cold beverage in each of their hands.

"Well, that was…uh fun, right guys?" Minato spoke with a slight chuckle. A man walked by and waved his hand at the trio, and they proceeded to reciprocate it. They had been getting them from the various denizens of the civilian side of the island all day long.

"If you like spending your entire day cleaning, then yes. It was absolutely fun." Mito spoke with a hint of annoyance in her tone.

Minato was proud of the clan heir. She took to the task of helping with the cleaning without so much as a complaint out of her. He was afraid that maybe she would come out spoilt rotten like most of the supposed royalty that existed in this world. _Guess there's an exception to every rule._

"So, um, we have to leave early tomorrow, tou-san." Naruto said, ending the small bout of silence that had ensued.

"Oh, because of the Senju thing?" He may not be a shinobi, but he lived with one at home, so things like the leader of the most powerful clan in the world coming to see your home were bound to float into conversations.

"Yes." Naruto concurred, "Ginrei-sensei wants us back in the morning so that we can prepare for Senju-sama and his children."

"Ah, I heard about that too." Minato sad, "Is it just going to be them only?"

"We're not really sure." Mito answered, "From what Tou-sama said, we should expect more."

"I see." Minato's face took on a thoughtful expression as he muled an idea over in his head. His face soon took on a look of someone that just struck gold, "Wait a sec…this could be the opportunity I have been looking for."

"What do you mean, Tou-san?" Naruto asked, seeing the look on his fathers face. It was a look he knew all too well. It was the same look he had whenever he had a brilliant idea.

Turning quicker than expected, Minato grabbed both children's hands and held them together while also donning a pleading look on his face, before he spoke, "Can you two get the Senju entourage and Jin and Ginrei-sama to pop by the store tomorrow?"

"Uh…why?" was all Naruto could ask of his father.

"Because if you do that, then I can have some special people act as my pseudo-ambassadors for my business." Minato said, pleading look turning into a crazed look in a few seconds. He was beginning to jump on his feet the more he thought about his idea.

"W-what exactly are you going to be selling, Minato-oji?" Mito asked with a hint of nerves in her voice.

Naruto was the one that answered her instead of Minato, "Remember that invention that I told you about a few months ago?"

"You mean the – uh, what was it – oh, the _bad_! Right?" Mito exclaimed.

" _Bed_." both blondes corrected her at the time.

"Oh." Mito blushed a little at them admonishing her.

"Yes, well…can you guys do it?" Minato pleaded, once more.

Naruto looked at Mito for a few seconds, before he turned and looked back at his father and said, "Sure, I guess."

"Yeah. I can get tou-sama to come here." Mito spoke with confidence at her ability to do that.

"Thank you so much, children." Minato's jubilation could be seen by the hug he gave both children, and could be heard in his voice.

"No problem, tou-san/Minato-oji." both children sounded happy to help.

As soon as the hug ended, both children began thinking up ways in which they could lure the leaders of the two clans.

* * *

Uzu no Kuni South Port – The Next Day

The port of Hi no Kuni was packed. Fishermen that frequented the legendary island that only housed one clan had docked their boats and ships in the spaces made readily available to them. There was a special section of the port that was dedicated to the large ship that the Senju would be arriving in. Everyone on the island, shinobi and civilian alike, wanted to catch a glimpse of the leader of the most powerful clan in the world. For those that lived on the island, it was perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Standing at the head of it all, at the foot of the pier, was the main Uzumaki family and Naruto. The only blonde Uzumaki in existence was dressed in a pair of black pants, matching sandals and a white kimono top that boasted his clan's insignia on it proudly over his heart. Tied around his wrists and ankles were a pair of white bandages. This was a look he usually sported outside of training.

The trio of grandfather, father and daughter stood next to a few Uzumaki shinobi that were standing on the water. The four shinobi in question had their hands planted into the water, and looks of utmost concentration were on their faces. They was a bit of a sweat on their brows, caused by what they were doing.

From what Naruto could remember from his days in the Academy, there was a specialised group of individuals that dealt with the whirlpools that surrounded their great island. The whirlpools were meant to act as a natural deterrent for other clans to try and attack them, and they did their part very well. Too well in fact.

The problem that they created was that they ended up acting as a bit of an inhibitor to the Uzumaki shinobi on the island, preventing them, at first, from leaving the island at will. After a while though, they found a simple solution to their problem through specialised Fūinjutsu. They could, in essence, control the current and speed any which way they pleased. This allowed them to have something akin to an early barrier detection system that could, in theory, prevent any and all from crossing their waters unless if the Uzumaki gave express permission.

The four shinobi on the water were part of a special barrier team of Uzumaki that, while not as good as other Uzumaki at Fūinjutsu, they could at least operate the seals placed all over the island and in the water that would act as a strong first line of defence.

Right now they were controlling the waters to allow for what Naruto assumed was a large ship, judging by the sweat they exuded, to pass onto their territory. The Uzumaki were a clan of sugar-high kids that had to be exerted beyond normal measures in order to be tired out.

That was another reason why they were the only clan on Uzu no Kuni. It was not that they did not want to share any space – they didn't – but the other reason was that it was impossible for any other clan other than the Uzumaki to inhabit the island.

Hundreds of years before the Uzumaki came to claim Uzu as their own, dozens of other clans sought to make it theirs. The dangerous waters made it next to impossible to get on, or off the island. They were very hard to defeat. The Uzumaki did it though, and as such they became the rightful rulers of the island.

"Naruto, look!" Naruto was drawn out of his thoughts by Mito's voice as she pointed at something he had not been paying attention to before. It started out as a small dot that was obscured by the sun, before it eventually became something that was extremely visible to the naked eye. A large ship, with white sails, came barrelling down the waters of Uzu no Kuni at speeds that Naruto thought were next to impossible for a ship of its size.

Looking at the Uzumaki shinobi on the water water's surface, with their hands stuck in the water, he quickly understood why. The reason why these guys were feeling so much fatigue from something that the text scrolls had referred to as something that wouldn't be too taxing on an Uzumaki – controlling the whirlpools around the island – was because they weren't just controlling the current of the whirlpools, but the actual ocean itself. They were making sure that the ship carrying the Senju clan's leader and his entourage arrived safely on the island, at a very fast pace.

Naruto couldn't help but smile at the teamwork shown by his clansmen. This was one of the many examples he points to whenever someone asked him why he loved being an Uzumaki. The supposed hippies of the shinobi world.

"So, what do you think they're like?" Mito whispered into his ear, breaking his thoughts once more.

"Who? The Senju?" Naruto whispered back.

"Yes."

"… Well, I think there's a reason why they're currently the number one ranked clan in the world." Naruto gave his own honest opinion.

"You said currently, as in they were not always the strongest clan in the world." Mito inquired, catching the way Naruto worded his answer.

"Well, yeah." Naruto turned to look at his best friend for the last three months. He saw that there was a slight perplexity on her face, "According to some research I've done, the Uzumaki were the strongest clan three hundred years ago."

"Wow. Really?" Mito's awe was very hard to miss.

"Yeah, but then other clans started becoming jealous of us. We're the reason the wanted books exist."

"What do you mean?" Mito inquired.

"Well," Naruto exhaled a bit, before he continued with his explanation, "Before we lived on this island, we lived in several different parts of the mainland, mainly Hi no Kuni and Mizu no Kuni. Our clan was the largest in number and the strongest of them all. Other clans became jealous of us and started coming after the Uzumaki."

"Oh."

"Yeah. We're the only clan to ever have a bounty placed on everyone. Everybody wanted what we had, and as such they did their utmost best to take it from us." Naruto's face took on a sombre look, "There were skirmishes all over the mainland that resulted in a large number of Uzumaki losing their lives. All of our allies had turned their backs on us."

"Even the Senju?"

"Yep. Them too."

"… Then how come we're allies again?" Mito, for the life of her, could not understand the reason behind how everything operated. She knew that Naruto did, he was extremely intelligent after all, and that he would try to make her understand as well. That's how their friendship went. Naruto learned complex things, and then he would explain them to her in very simple terms.

"Well, you see the word ally is like a stone that's in mid-air. It only lasts for as long as it has the power to do so, before it crashes onto the ground." Looking at his friend, Naruto saw that she understood what he was saying by the simple nod she gave him.

"So that would mean that even this alliance we have right now could crash as well?"

"Yep. Hence why it's important that both sides try to keep up their ends of the bargain."

"Even if we're cousins?" Mito's innocence could be felt through the way she asked Naruto the question.

"Distant cousins, Mito. The Senju and Uzumaki are distant cousins. Really, really distant cousins." Naruto spoke with such clarity that Mito understood what he was saying underneath it all.

The Uzumaki and Senju weren't truly family. Not at all.

Naruto could see that Mito finally understood the gravity of the visit by the Senju. Whatever request that they had, if not honoured, could result in a war between the two clan's with the longest relative peace between them.

The ship carrying the Senju finally pulled up to the docks, slowing down as it drew closer, until it finally came to a stand still. The ship's anchor holding it in place. A plank was dropped onto the pier, just a few feet in front of the Uzumaki royalty, and out stepped a man flanked by two boys.

Silence reigned supreme at that moment.

The man was of tall stature, he also possessed black eyes and shoulder-length black hair kept back out of his face by a piece of light green cloth tied around his forehead. He also had a prominent jawline and wore the red standard armour of that era emblazoned with the Senju symbol at the front and on both sides of the shoulder plates, accompanied with mesh armour underneath his attire. In addition, he wore a sword over his right shoulder.

This was, without a show of a doubt, Senju Butsuma.

The first of the two boys that stepped out was dressed in a pair of black clothes which consisted of a t-shirt and pants underneath green armour that was standard for shinobi. Around his head rested a white band that bore the Senju emblem, and on his back rested a sword. The oddest thing about this boy was his hair cut, which was cut in such a way that it resembled a bowl.

The other boy wore armour that was constructed from green metal plates that covered his torso, lower behind, and groin alongside fishnet armour around his wrists and shins. Underneath the armour rested a pair of navy pants and shirt. His hair, unlike Butsuma's and the other boy that accompanied him, was shockingly grey, and also very spiky.

As the trio walked towards the Uzumaki entourage, two more children stepped out from behind them. This time it was a boy and a girl.

The boy had a head of short, two-toned hair, with one side being black and the other half being white with matching eyebrows. He wore green armour, and wrapped a piece of cloth around his forehead. From what Naruto could glean, he seemed to be around his age.

Next to the two-toned haired boy was a girl decked in a similar style to the boy, with the only difference being the colour of the armour. Hers was grey. Her hair was tied in a short ponytail and her eyes were squinted in such a way that she looked like she didn't have any eyes to begin with. She carried herself in a similar manner to the grey haired boy that had stepped out alongside the presumed Senju Butsuma.

Behind them, the crew working on the ship were busy tying up the sails and making sure that nothing was out of place.

Turning his attention back to the few people walking down towards them, Naruto took better stock of the two boys walking next to the man he thought was Senju Butsuma. The brown-haired one with a hair cut resembling a bowl looked contemplative and slightly nervous. He seemed to be thinking up something really important.

The other boy carried himself with the cockiness and swagger of someone that believed that they could defeat anyone and anything placed in front of them. _He must be very strong_ Naruto thought.

"Welcome, Senju-dono." Jin greeted Butsuma as soon as he stopped in front of him.

"Thank you, Uzumaki-dono." Butsuma replied with a very serious tone, "It's good to be back here after so many years."

"It's great to have you return to us." Jin spoke with the same natural expression he always kept on his face. He then gestured to the former leader of the Uzumaki clan and said, "You already know my father."

"Of course. Ginrei-dono is someone that I would be hard pressed to find that didn't lnow about him." Butsuma said, bowing in the former clan head's direction, which resulted in Ginrei doing the same to him.

"Oh, that's a lot of confidence placed on an old man." Ginrei replied after bowing at Butsuma.

"It's well deserved confidence." Butsuma spoke with a politeness in his tone that would make a few people that did not know him on a personal level dismiss some of the more asinine stories surrounding him and his almost tyrannical ways.

Ginrei, fortunately, was one of the few individuals in the world that knew the man on a personal level, and as such he knew not to dismiss those stories or to even undermine the man that stood before him. He was as much of a beast off the battlefield as much as he was on it.

"This," Ginrei heard his son intone from the side, "Is my precious daughter, Mito."

"It's very nice to meet you, Mito-chan." Butsuma said this with the same polite tone as before, although his face was as stoic as ever.

"Likewise, Butsuma-sama." Mito said, bowing at the leader of the strongest clan in the world.

"And the boy?" Butsuma said when he saw that Jin was not going to introduce him to the blonde child next to Mito.

Ginrei, in an attempt to make sure that Butsuma didn't see anything wrong with the set up that they had with Naruto there, quickly said, "Oh, that's Naruto. He's a very bright young boy that is quite strong for his age."

"Ho… now my interest has been piqued." Butsuma said this while staring at Naruto, who held the powerful gaze of the Senju leader with his own, significantly less powerful one, "To have Ginrei the wise talk of you with such praise…you must be truly special."

"Not really." Naruto said, bowing at the man, before continuing, "I just work hard."

"Well, I'd like to see exactly just how hard you work in a spar. You shall face off against my eldest, Hashirama." Butsuma pointed at the boy with a bowl-shaped haircut while saying this. Said boy jumped out of his skin, so to speak, as soon as his name had been called out, as if he had been caught stealing something.

"What about the other four?" Naruto asked.

"What about them?"

"Are they not strong too?"

"Oh, they are."

"Then why not have me spar against them as well?"

"Because it should be the Uzumaki's most promising prospect going up against the Senju's most promising. That way we can see exactly where both of our illustrious clans measure against each other."

"Yes, but –"

"Enough, Naruto." Jin spoke up from the sidelines, silencing his blonde student. Jin had the look of a perfectly calm individual as he spoke again, "We'll have the spar tomorrow, for now we have other matters to take care of."

With all of the greetings all said and done, Jin pointed his hand at the hill that overlook the Whirling City and said, "This way, gentlemen. That is where our discussions shall take place."

Butsuma acquiesced to the Uzumaki clan leader taking the lead on this one. After all, it was his village.

Just as the party was about to begin their journey to the hillside manor of the Uzumaki, Mito spoke up, "Wait!"

If Jin were a man that did not have the ability to reign in his emotions the way that he did, he would have probably rolled his eyes at that point. He had just pseudo-chastised Naruto for holding up the talks with Butsuma, and now Mito was doing the same as well.

"What is it?" The irritation in Jin's voice could not be masked.

"Oh! Um…" Mito was a bit taken aback by her father's tone, but she quickly steeled herself and spoke out, "Well, um, I think it would be best if we took Senju-sama and his children on a tour of the Whirling City."

"Why would I do that when it would only slow-"

"-Take the children." Butsuma suddenly spoke up, interrupting Jin.

"Huh/What?" Mito and her father said respectively.

"Take the children. It's not like they're needed in our talks." Butsuma said, "Show them around, show them whatever you want."

"Are you sure, tou-sama?" the grey haired child said.

"Absolutely, Tobirama." Butsuma spoke with an empty smile on his face, "You and your brother's deserve this after all you have been through these last few months."

"Alright." Tobirama nodded in his father's direction.

As soon as that had been said, the strongest Senju alive walked away from his children, quickly catching up to the Uzumaki leaders that were in front of him, and they slowly began walking away from the pier. Most of the people there decided to follow the great men, looking to catch snippets of whatever conversation that might have struck up between them.

Those that stayed behind did so because they wanted to talk to the Senju kids. Naruto had no idea why they would want to do so.

"So, I'm Mito." Naruto heard his best friend say from the sidelines. He hadn't even realised that she was already trying to talk to the Senju kids.

"Oh, um, I'm Tobirama." the grey haired boy replied since he was the closest to her, "These are my brothers Hashirama," He points to the bowl-shape haircut boy, "and Itama." He points to the dual-hair coloured boy, "The girl is our cousin, Tōka."

"It's very nice to meet you all." Mito said, bowing at all four of them.

"Likewise." Hashirama replied with his own bow.

And so, with the children finally acquainted with one another, they began their journey towards Minato's shop.

* * *

 **To be Continued**

 **That wraps up another chapter. I wanted to make it a 10k word chapter, but decided against it after the children were acquainted with each other. It would have taken away from this moment, so no 10k chapter. YET!**

 **On to other news now, I'm working on the next chapter of the story, so you'll have to wait for that...hopefully not for long.**

 **I've been working on this chapter for last three weeks. Problems – of the financial variant – have arisen at home, and as such I can't write as much as I want to. I'm starting up a account to help me out a little, so if you guys could do me a solid, then I promise to upload a chapter once a week.**

 **Help a brother out. Please.**

 **Anyway, that's it for now.**

 **I'm out!**


	6. Chapter 6: Signs of War

Chapter Six: Signs of War

Naruto, Mito and the Senju kids strolled through the business hub of Uzu no Kuni while the warm sun beat down on them gently. The group of six were being closely followed by a few civilians and shinobi. The civilians followed because it wasn't everyday that the island had Senju visits, and the shinobi because they were in charge of watching over the kids.

Naruto and the others did not pay them any attention though, instead choosing to focus on the small conversation that had popped up between them, "…no way! You fought, and killed, five tigers at once?"

Mito's incredulity could be felt in her tone as she stared at Hashirama. The oldest out of all of the present children held a sheepish look on his face as he scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, I also find that a bit hard to believe." Naruto said, turning his head in order to look at the Senju children walking behind him. He currently led the small rag-tag group of kids through the Whirling City. He would stop and point at a particular store and explain what that store had, and then they would move on.

Judging by the reactions that they had towards certain stores Naruto put together a bit of a profile for each of the children.

Hashirama was an excitable individual.

Tobirama was someone that kept quiet a _lot_. He barely let any sort of emotion slip through throughout the impromptu tour. He only spoke up whenever he was directly asked a question by either Naruto or Mito. The other Senju kids just seemed to treat this as a normal behaviour, so Naruto assumed that it was such. The only time he spoke was when he was reprimanding the other Senju kids sans Tōka, who just kept quiet just as much as Tobirama did.

Itama was a bit harder to figure out, because while he was talkative, it only happened whenever he saw something that he thought was worth mentioning. Anything beyond that was considered nothing worth talking about.

Naruto found the Senju brothers to be a perfect blend of each other. One spoke a lot, while the other barely spoke, and the third was a bit of an amalgamation of both. His hair denoting that fact.

"Hey guys," the youngest Senju said, drawing the attention of all of the other kids to him, "I hear that Uzu has some of the most exotic, uh, animals in this world-"

"-Yeah, that's true." Mito interrupted excitedly, "You want to see them?"

Before Itama could answer, Hashirama beat him to the punch, "Heck yeah. That actually sounds cool. Plus, I can get a feel of the Uzu forestry."

Naruto turned a critical eye onto the oldest Senju in the group. Why would he want to get a feel of the forestry of his nation? Looking at Tobirama, and his reaction to Hashirama's outburst, it would seem that there was more to what Hashirama said than one would initially think.

The slightly scathing look shot in Hashirama's general direction after his comment made, which made the older boy shrivel a little under his brother's gaze, was a dead give away.

Quickly schooling his features, Naruto pretended to not notice a single thing out of place with Hashirama's statement and just said, "If you wanna see what we have, then follow my lead."

Quicker than most of the civilians could follow, Naruto jumped onto a nearby rooftop, with Mito following suit. Hashirama, Tobirama, Itama and Tōka also followed soon after, looking to see where the blonde Uzumaki would take them.

* * *

Uzumaki Clan Main House – Same time

* * *

The tension between the leaders of the two distantly-related clans was so palpable that it could be cut by an actual bladed weapon. If there was any other person, aside from the three powerful figures that were currently there in the room, they would have been sweating a lot.

Fortunately, the men that currently took part in these talks were experienced shinobi. Two of them were clan heads, a job description that came with the biggest headaches imaginable, while the other was a former clan head. Tension was nothing new to any of them.

"So, what can we do for you, Butsuma-dono?" Jin began the discussion in its new location, cool as a cucumber. All of the pleasantries went the way of the dinosaur as soon as the three men entered the study that the meeting was taking place in. That did not mean that he had to show his true colours, yet.

"You sound like someone that doesn't really want to talk." Butsuma stated, small smile placed on his slightly wrinkled face.

Of course Jin didn't want to talk to the man. He would have preferred if he never saw or spoke to the man ever again. Any amount of time spent away from Senju Butsuma was good for you in Jin's book. He knew that his father agreed with him, but he would never really say so. Alas, things rarely work in your favour, even as the head of a powerful clan.

"Nothing like that, Butsuma-dono." Jin lied through his teeth, even though he knew that Butsuma knew that it was the total opposite. He did not care, "I'm just curious as to what it is that you want to discuss with us, especially after making us wait for three whole months before we could find out."

As soon as he finished speaking, Jin saw something he never thought he would ever see on Butsuma's face. Something akin to worry.

Ginrei picked up on this too, but chose to say nothing, just like his son. He was merely present in order to give his two cents whenever the two clan heads needed it. Outside of that, however, he was merely a spectator.

Butsuma seemed to be battling with something inside him, if the slight fluctuation of his facial muscles were anything to go by. These were not pronounced fluctuations, just small, nondescript ones. Fluctuations that only shinobi of a high calibre could pick up.

"What I wanted to discuss with you three months ago is different from what I want to discuss right now." Butsuma said, pausing to gather his thoughts while he stared into the previous and current leaders of his sister clan.

Jin wanted to ask the man to speed things up. He did not want to sit in his father's study all day. Unfortunately for him, doing so would make him seem like someone that was impatient, and that was most certainly not him.

"Four months ago, my eldest, Hashirama, developed… something. I don't want to call it a kekkei genkai, because that would be presumptuous, but it bares all of the tell tale signs of one." Butsuma's statement caused the two Uzumaki men to raise their eyebrows slightly.

It wasn't common knowledge that the father-son due rarely saw eye to eye, to the point where people would sometimes question if they were related by blood or not. Seeing the mannerism that they had just shared shed those thoughts out of Butsuma's mind. He was one of the few that were privy to know that the father and son that sat before him rarely saw eye to eye.

For Ginrei and his son, their thoughts were aligned with the implications of what Butsuma had just said. The Senju were the most powerful clan in the world, no one (except the Uchiha) would dispute that claim. For them to develop a kekkei genkai… well that was something else entirely. These people were a group of kekkei genkai-less shinobi that made it their life's work to stomp out every single clan out there, including the clan that possessed the (theoretically) most powerful kekkei genkai.

"What type of power did your son develop?" Ginrei asked, feeling the need to forgo his role as the guy that would only throw in a comment here-and-there and just straight up be involved with the conversation, "Is it a Dōjutsu, is it elemental or is it something else entirely?"

"Elemental." Butsuma answered the old man that was usually quiet during these proceedings, "The element itself is very strange. Nothing like the ice or the lava that we all know of. It's something… weaker really."

The slight disappointment could be heard in Butsuma's tone. The man was a war-monger and a power hungry dog. Despite the fact that his clan could be on the cusp of discovering an elemental bloodline that's never been seen or heard of before, judging by his earlier words of how even he could not identify it, due to the fact that it was not as destructive as the Yuki clan's Hyoton or the Yonton that was scattered throughout the various clans of Tsuchi no Kuni and Kaminari no Kuni, it was potentially worthless in his eyes.

"How so?" Jin asked.

"It lacks any destructive capabilities." disappointment evident in Butsuma's voice, "It's good for one thing though."

"And that is?" Jin asked, wishing the man would get to the point already.

Butsuma was quiet for a few moments, before he said, "He can create trees. How useful do you think that an ability like that would be in the battlefield?"

Jin and his father just looked at the man as he concluded his answer. His son had a kekkei genkai that could, if trained enough, at least alter the terrain. While not a straightforward attack heavy kekkei genkai, it was at least good for support.

And the man thought it was useless.

"I see." Jin said, rubbing the stubble that he had on his face, "Well, if that's the case, then why is it important? I mean I fail to see why you would want to discuss it here."

"I need your expansive library to do some research on his kekkei genkai. Either Hashirama's not achieving its full potential, or this is truly the extent of it all. Either way the Senju could be seeing the birth of a new kekkei genkai and it wouldn't hurt to know if there was something on it." Butsuma's answer basically told the last two men to hold the title of clan head for the Uzumaki all they needed to know.

Butsuma wanted to find a way to mass produce his son's own kekkei genkai.

"Well..." Ginrei began, stroking his beard, "our library is yours to use as you see fit. Of course, the Fūinjutsu section is a no-go zone."

"I understand," Butsuma tipped his head low as a means of thanking his sort-of cousins for their assistance, "Fūinjutsu is your trade secret after all."

Silence reigned through the room for a few moments as the trio of men looked between each other with nothing to say. At least that was the case for the father-son duo. For Butsuma however, he had something else that he wanted to say, but was unsure of how to word it. His distant relatives had refused to help him on multiple occasions before.

As soon as Ginrei saw Butsuma's pondering, he smiled at the man in a kindly manner, as if he were smiling at Naruto or his own granddaughter whenever they had something to say but couldn't. Butsuma thought that the look was despicable and very condescending, especially when used on a shinobi of his calibre, but he did not say anything. He had to be on his best behaviour if he wanted things to go his way again.

"You look like you have something plaguing your mind, Butsuma-dono?" Ginrei said.

"Indeed I do." Butsuma shifted slightly so as to sit in a much more comfortable position.

"Anything we can do to help?" Jin asked.

"Well that depends." Butsuma replied.

"On what?" Jin, now curious, asked.

"Your reaction to what I have to say next." Butsuma looked at both men and said, "It has come to my attention that the Uchiha are in talks with the Hyūga."

"The Hyūga?" Ginrei was shocked by what Butsuma said, for various reasons, "I thought they hated each other."

"Oh, they do…" Butsuma said, "but they hate the Senju even more."

"Hate the Senju?" Jin asked a question that he knew his father had running through his own mind, "Since when do the Hyūga hate the Senju. I thought that you were very tolerant of each other."

"We were." Butsuma began, "Until a failed mission."

"What type of mission would lead to a fall out between two clans?" Jin asked, as this seemed to confuse him the more Butsuma spoke.

Instead of it being Butsuma that answered, it was instead Ginrei, "A mission that involved the assassination of a high profile member of one of the clans by the other. Am I wrong."

Butsuma cracked a wry smile and simply answered with, "Your nickname is a well-earned one. I'm glad we're not enemies."

Which was Butsuma-talk for _you're so useful that I would hate to kill you_.

"If that's true, then who is at fault?" Jin asked this question already knowing what the likely answer was going to be.

"We are." Butsuma admitted without a shred of shame for getting caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar.

"I sent out a mission request to work alongside the Hyūga for an ambush on a recently discovered Uchiha hideout." the man explained, before questions could be thrown at him, "Of course, this was a lie I cultivated to get a handful of Hyūga to come out of their hiding holes and far away from their clan for us to actually try and-"

"-take their eyes." Jin said, disgust evident in his tone. Senju Butsuma may have been a splendid shinobi, but as he sat right there in front of him explaining his treacherous mission in front of his so-called cousins, he made Jin want to stand up and kick his face in.

"Yes. That was the idea." Butsuma could feel the levels of disgust being directed at him by the two men he was conversing with, but he honestly did not care. He was a shinobi through and through. If he saw an opportunity to further the cause of his clan, he would take it, morality be damned.

"So the Hyūga discovered what you were up to and…" Ginrei ended his words in an expectant manner, wishing for Butsuma to fill in the blanks.

"They escaped our trap. We underestimated them and they were able to run away, making sure that their eyes did not end up in our possession. The two stragglers we managed to apprehend damaged their own eyes so we couldn't use them. So we ended up killing them."

"And now the Hyūga are so pissed off that they decided to band together with the enemy. Classic 'enemy of my enemy' at work here." Jin said, feeling exhausted already. He could guess what Butsuma wanted, but he wanted the man to come out and say it.

"Except, Jin-dono," Butsuma said, "that's not where it ends."

"There's more to this?" Jin asked rhetorically, feigning ignorance. Of course there would be more to this. When Senju Butsuma was involved nothing is ever cut and dry.

"Unfortunately." Butsuma had a genuine frown of displeasure at this point. His age was beginning to show, "The reason why it took me three moths to get here is because during this period, I've been trying to mend the fences with our other allies."

"They found out?"

"Yes. A few have abandoned ship. Choosing to go back to being neutral over the war with the Uchiha or actually join up with them."

"Just how many clans have you lost over this, Butsuma-dono?" Ginrei felt compelled to ask.

"Five. The Sarutobi and Nara went back to being neutral while the Akimichi, Yamanaka and Hyūga all joined up with the Uchiha. The Yamanaka, despite my best assurances that the Senju would never betray them, simply chose to ignore me and side with the Uchiha. The Akimichi had already been spoiling for a reason to leave us, believing that the way our alliance worked was unfair, but that was not true. This was just all the motivation that they needed to leave us." Butsuma said all of this calmly.

"So the only allied clan that you have that's based in Hi no Kuni is the Shimura clan." Ginrei deduced.

"Yes."

"You can see how this leaves us in a very precarious position." Butsuma said, to which the two other men nodded in understanding, "The scales have been tipped to the Uchiha's favour. They are now the most powerful clan in Hi no Kuni. And because of this, they have become…what's the saying? What's the mechanism that is used to launch arrows from a crossbow?"

"A trigger." Ginrei answered.

"Yes, that. They have become trigger happy." Butsuma concluded.

Jin and Ginrei looked at each other for a split second, already guessing where this was headed. Butsuma was here to ask for manpower.

"The Uchiha have been taking more and more of our clientel away, with people choosing to work with them instead of us. We're loosing territory that was once ours in Hi no Kuni. I'm sure two men such as yourselves know what I'm here for." The time for sugar coating was done. It was time to go for the kill.

"You're here to ask us to lend you our strength in order to get back your strength." Jin said.

"Yes, I am." Butsuma said.

"We have not been involved in a war in a very long time, Butsuma." Ginrei said, with the other two noticing how he chose to drop the honorific he had been using to address Butsuma all along, "Don't drag us back into one. Especially one that does not concern us."

There was complete silence in the room for the briefest of moments, before Butsuma started chuckling. It started off quietly, but within three seconds it had become full blown laughter, "Hehehehe…hahahahahahahaha! Does not concern you?" Butsuma had a look that was a cross between angry and crazy, "Are you crazy, old man? Of course it concerns you! Your clan has not seen war for a very long time because of us! The Senju! It was our generosity that allowed you to stay out of harms way for so long! We've been shouldering the burden of fighting not only our enemies, but yours as well!"

Butsuma stood up quicker than most people would ever be able to in that situation, "Now, when we need your help you reject us like every other time that we do it? Nuh-ah, not this time! You will not reject us because this is not a request that can be ignored! Just think! Think for a second! Think about what will happen to your clan if we're gone! We're your biggest Fūinjutsu customers! We are the ones that buy most of your exports and sell them on the mainland. We! The Senju! Once we're gone, you won't have a buffer to protect yourselves from the outside world beyond the pitiful whirlpools that surround your island! And we know that they won't hold up a candle to a clan with flying animal summons! So get off your blasted high horses Uzumaki, and start pulling your own damn weight in this world!"

Then he went deathly quiet, "Because if you don't…oh dear cousins, if you don't, then you will burn to the ground. You and this beautiful island of yours."

By the time he finished, Butsuma was hyperventilating. He had never spoken so many words in one go in such a long time. Only women, as far as he was concerned, spoke as many words as that in one go. His father had raised a man, a true warrior of the Senju. He didn't raise a weakling.

Ginrei and Jin were surprised by the amount of passion and energy that Ginrei had put in that tirade. They had never ever seen the man speak with such passion ever before. From the way he spoke, they guessed that this had been something that had been weighing on his mind for a very long time. With most of the Senju's requests over the years being met by a series of no's, there was obviously going to be a breaking point. It would seem that this was it.

Butsuma sat down and looked at the father and son duo as they seemed to be thinking about something. Whatever it was, for their sakes, Butsuma hoped that it was a yes, because he would hate to have to turn on the only clan outside of his own that he actually liked.

* * *

Uzu no Kuni Forest – Day

* * *

"Alright guys, hurry up." Naruto's voice rang out through the forest that the children currently found themselves in.

They had travelled from Whirling City to the forest because Hashirama wanted to spend some time in the forest. Naruto found it to be kind of weird that Hashirama would want to do that as opposed to seeing the city. It was a great tourist attraction, since it was the only one in the world that was under direct shinobi rule.

"You know, I wanted to show you guys something really cool. Something that _will_ become a mainstay on the mainland really soon." Naruto said, trying to hype up his father's invention. If he could get the kids of the Senju leader interested, then maybe they could get their father to buy into this as well.

While the other children paid attention to what Naruto said, Hashirama was too busy to pay any attention to the only blonde Uzumaki in existence. What was he busy with?

"Oh, yeah…that's so nice…" Hashirama cooed these words while he was busy rubbing himself against a random tree.

"Okay, _that_. is weird." Naruto said, getting a nod out of Mito as they looked at the young Senju as he had the look of someone that felt great pleasure, especially with the way his eyes were half-lidded.

"Oi, Hashirama," Tobirama shouted, getting Hashirama stop his tree ministrations and pay attention.

"What, Tobirama?" Hashirama's tone clearly conveyed that he was not pleased with being disturbed from his 'moment'.

"Don't make me come there and force you to pay attention, damn it!" Tobirama shot back, getting his older brother to recoil slightly and to have a dark cloud hang over him.

"Tobi-baka's no fun." Hashirama said in a deperesed tone, "Taking all of my fun away."

"Tobi-baka!?" Tobirama's was livid, "I'll show you a baka!"

Tobirama quickly ran to Hashirama, looking to clean his clock for him, but the older brother was more deceptive than he let on as his sour mood quickly vanished to be replaced by a mischievous smirk, before he disappeared at the last second, replaced by a log just as Tobirama put his hand on him.

'Whoa.' Naruto thought, 'I didn't even see him make any hand signs.'

"Last one back is a rotten egg!" Hashirama's voice rang throughout the forest, or at least the section that they were in.

"Show off." scoffed Tōka as soon as his voice died down.

Naruto and Mito were too buy looking all over the show, trying to see where he was.

"Don't bother."Itama said, getting them both to stop searching for the eldest Senju among them, "He's gone. Probably already halfway to the entrance of the forest."

"Oh." Naruto said, preparing to get going.

"The others are too." Itama disappeared as soon as he said this, and then Naruto and Mito realised that all of the Senju kids were already gone.

"Hey, no fair!" Mito bellowed as she started playing catch up. She ran for a few seconds, before she realised that Naruto was just looking at the direction that they had run to.

"C'mon, Naruto. They're getting away." Mito pleaded.

"Don't worry about it, Mito." Naruto said as he turned left and started to walk that way, "Follow me. I know a short-cut."

Stuffing his hands into his pockets, Naruto walked forward at a leisurely pace, waiting for Mito to catch up to him, and as soon as she did, he put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Hold on tight."

"You're the one doing the holding, Naruto."

"Oh, hehe. My bad."

And with that, they were gone.

* * *

To be Continued

* * *

 **And that, ladies and gents, is an end to the sixth chapter of this story. Honestly, this chapter was soooo hard to write. I actually re-did it three times. I know it's short, but there was nothing else to add that wouldn't ruin the flow I'm going for with the story.**

 **Also, sorry about it being late. Blame it on Fifa and lethargy. Seriously, I'm not going to make any excuses beyond the truth of the matter. I got lazy, and this was a pretty hard chapter to write.**

 **Anyway, I've already begun the next chapter but I don't know when it will be out, hopefully soon, because it isn't as hard as this one.**

 **Let me know what you guys think.**

 **This is me signing off.**

 **I'm out.**


	7. Chapter 7: Hashirama v Naruto

Chapter Seven: Hashirama v Naruto

The bright rays of the sun were just peeking over the clouds and illuminating the village settlement that Uzumaki Jin would do anything for. As he stood on a mountain range just outside of the village that he was the leader of he kept playing back the meting that he had with Butsuma.

Everything that had been said– from the Senju gaining a possible kekkei genkai through Butsuma's first born, to the manner in which the man so callously admitted to trying to steal the Byakugan from the Hyūga, to his over-the-top rant about how the Senju were the only reason why their clan hadn't seen all out war in a _very_ long time. The last part rang true.

All of those things just kept playing themselves back and forth throughout his mind as he tried to come to a decision about it all.

Of course, the first one was an easy enough decision to come to. The Uzumaki had an extensive library that had documented information that dated back hundreds of years. Some of the more secret information that they held traced back to the days of the Rikudō Sennin. This type of information was privy to only those that were of high standings within the clan.

They had a bit of a monopoly in the history market.

If Butsuma wanted to find out something regarding a possible latent Senju kekkei genkai genome then he was more than welcome to fish through the sections of their library that were for public use.

The other thing, the one involving a possible war with- who was he kidding? A war between the Senju and the Hyūga was inevitable now. Butsuma was gathering resources to try and make sure that everything turned out well for him. The Senju may have lost a lot of credibility among some of Hi no Kuni's more prominent clans, but they still had powerful allies.

The Uzumaki were invariably more powerful than some of the clans that the Senju lost. This was not Jin beating on his clan's chest with prideful egotism, it was just a simple fact. Anyone that can use Fūinjutsu in a fight is dangerous. Very much so. To the point where, depending on their skill level, they can end battles in one move.

Now imagine a clan filled to the brim with people that at least had the potential to do that individually.

Having the Uzumaki back them up in the war would definitely be something great for the Senju. But would it be so for the Uzumaki?

"How goes things?" Jin's thoughts were interrupted by his father, who slowly walked up to him until he stood at the apex of the small mountain with his son. They both watched as the village that they had given their lives towards protecting got ready to tackle the day's activities.

"Not good." Jin replied calmly, as expected of him. If it had been anyone else that had asked him the question, he would have said something else. Maybe make up a lie or just outright shut up; but he was dealing with his father, the man that made _him_ a man.

"I understand. This is a situation that requires the most profound level of thinking you can muster."

"Any chance of you possibly sharing some of your wisdom, Ginrei the wise." Jin said with a nearly imperceptible smirk, still looking at the village below.

"Was that a joke? I never thought you had it in you to make one." Honestly, that surprised the heck out of Ginrei.

"I am not emotionally stunted. No one is. Even Butsuma, someone that makes me look like a happy-go-lucky idiot isn't as emotionless as everyone thinks."

Ginrei nodded his head in agreement.

"Still though, I really don't know what to do." turning to look at his son, Ginrei saw just how much weight his son was carrying. He may have been a powerful shinobi that was seen by many as an example of the perfect shinobi, but he was still human at the end of it all. It was his human side that had now shown itself as he wrestled with the thought of sending his brethren to die in a war that they did not start.

"As allies, especially allies as close as us, we ought to back up the Senju whenever possible…if we don't, and the Senju lose the war, they could face total extinction." Ginrei surmised.

"Which means we won't have a buffer any more between us and the rest of this crazy world. We will lose our biggest client in the world and– "

Ginrei put together what he assumed was going to be Jin's final part to his statement, "It will be like the not-so good ol' days, with different clans coming at us non-stop to try and kill us off. Like centuries ago."

"Do you see now? The dangers of the _good clan_ label that you placed on us all those years ago? It may be good for business, but it doesn't work out so well for reputation amongst other clans."

"And hardcore shinobi pragmatism is better? Look at what the Senju are involved in now?" Ginrei stated with a hard glare to his son for trying to throw some mud on a brilliant marketing strategy he had come up with to garner more money for the Uzumaki during his reign as clan head.

"It doesn't matter. What matters now is how we move forward. If we acquiesce to Butsuma's request, then many of our clansmen will die fighting in a war that was not of our own making." Jin honestly wanted to punch Butsuma in the face for putting in such a precarious position. The make-up of the shinobi world was so fickle,yet also so well set in stone. When you are at the top everyone else hates you. Mostly for your hubris in thinking of yourself as invincible. It happened to the Uzumaki, and they learned a great deal from it; and now it was happening to the Senju.

"True. But if we don't then the Senju will loose. They may be strong, but even they can't face up to the combined might of two Dōjutsu wielding clans along with a whole cavalcade of others, with their only back up being the Shimura and a few others. If that happens, and they go the way of the Hagaromo, then we'll be next."

"This all just boils down to a question of do we fight now, when we don't have to or fight later when we are provoked?" Jin took in a deep breath and exhaled, before finally looking at his father for the first time since their conversation had begun, "What would you do?"

Unlike earlier on, when he had phrased it as a joke, this time Jin meant it. He really wanted his father's advice.

Ginrei seemed to think things through for a bit, before reaching a conclusion in his head and saying, "If I were clan head I would have made a decision that was best for the clan. I would have trusted in our might and willpower to overcome anything thrown at us."

Then he turned on the spot and started to walk away, "But I am not the clan head any more. That title belongs to someone else now. I will defer the final choice to him, knowing very well that whatever choice he makes, he has the clan's best interests at heart."

Ginrei left Jin alone to ponder.

Jin did not know what to make of his father's words beyond 'I trust you to make a decision that is good for the clan, because it's Uzumaki before all else'. That was the basic gist of how he read it. He could be wrong, but he had no one to correct him.

So that is what he would do. He would make a decision that was for the betterment of the clan.

* * *

Have you ever felt annoyed by someone? So annoyed that you wish that you could strangle them to death and just be done with them? Unfortunately you can not because you know that doing so would be considered an international criminal offence that could lead to war? Even in a culture that prided itself on backstabbing people like a sloth prides itself on its sleeping ability?

If your name rhymed with Momonoke, then you would know how that felt like.

"Staring at me isn't going to make me go away." a very calm and cool Butsuma said as he bent down to try and pick a scroll from a large rack that resided within the Uzumaki clan's famed library.

"I'm not staring." Shimonosuke replied, squinting his eyes really hard as he looked at Butsuma stand up straight and continue down the aisle picking up different scrolls, "I'm trying to see if I can develop some kind of Dōjutsu that can allow me to shoot pure chakra from my eyes."

"And if that were to happen while you were staring in my general direction…" Butsuma let the sentence hang, knowing that a man as experienced as Shimonosuke could figure out the rest. It basically boiled down to:

There will be war.

"Then there would be one less nuisance in the world ." Shimonosuke stopped squinting really hard, relaxing his facial muscles and choosing to simply fold his arms.

Butsuma looked at the man said to be a Ninjutsu expert among Ninjutsu experts and just stared at him for a few seconds. He really couldn't understand what the man hated about him. This was how he usually behaved whenever they were within each other's vicinity. Always trying to test his patience.

He didn't really care much about what Shimonosuke thought of him, he was just a librarian after all. He held no truly high ranking position within the clan. Even if he did, his loathing wouldn't even get Butsuma to sneeze in his general direction.

Butsuma just hated people that didn't give him proper respect.

Unlike his contemporary, Ginrei, Shimonosuke was nothing to him. He wasn't as dangerous as Ginrei. He was just someone that was extremely well versed in Ninjutsu because of his psychotic father's (effective) teachings. He found Ginrei's intellect to be of a higher value than Shimonosuke and his vast Jutsu. Sure Ninjutsu could save your life when in you are in a dangerous situation, but the mind would have allowed you to circumvent the dangerous situation in its entirety.

Besides, in this world, which ninja wasn't a Ninjutsu expert on some level?

He would, however, respect him for one thing, "This library is in very pristine condition."

That took Shimonosuke back a bit. A compliment? From Senju Butsuma? He must be in some alternate reality where stoic assholes of an unfathomable calibre were kings of sarcasm and compliments.

"Whoever organised it would make a good maid." Butsuma said, knowing very well who organised it all. The man that had been trying to discover if he had a Dōjutsu just a few minutes ago.

It got the desired effect out of Shimonosuke, who was already in motion before he realised it; a very guttural growl escaped his throat followed by, "There seems to be a youngster that's going to be in need of a change of pants really soon. I sense that they are going to resemble mud."

Butsuma smirked, closing the distance as well, but much slower and calmer, "Oh really? I think someone's about to have a heart attack."

It took them all of five seconds to stand just a hair's breath away from each other, flaring their nostrils in each others faces. Well, Shimonosuke was, Butsuma simply looked him up and down, scowling as he did so.

"What is your angle here, Butsuma?"

A simple raised eyebrow was Butsuma's way of saying, "Excuse me?"

"Why are you dragging the Uzumaki into a war?"

"Ah, I should've known that Ginrei would tell you what was going on. Why he seeks out your counsel when he's the much more intelligent one out of you two is beyond me."

"Ginrei hasn't said a single word to me in days, which isn't really something big for us. We've gone months without saying anything to each other." Shimonosuke said as he shook his head, "No, he didn't have to. Everywhere you go you spread death and destruction. Every alliance you make somehow crumbles due to some reason or the other."

A scowl found its way onto Butsuma's face.

"Many people across the lands view you as the pinnacle of shinobi excellence. Why _they_ do so is _beyond me_? All you do is destroy. If that is the ideal shinobi, then I fear for the Senju. I don't see them making it past the next five years. They may go the way of the Hagaromo." Shimonosuke looked at the younger ninja with hatred, while said ninja just stared at him in apathy. This lasted for a few seconds, but for the two men it might as well have been a lifetime.

"You know…you and your clan need to get off your high horse and see the real world for what it is. The upcoming war will be a great reminder to you all of what the real world is like." With his peace said, Butsuma turned around and went back into the aisle that he was searching through. He had not even taken five steps before:

"How about a bet?"

"A bet? You mistake me for someone that doesn't have his priorities in order." Honestly, what did this old coot take him for? An addict? No. Being addicted to any of the shinobi vices was a sin. He was anything but an addict…maybe a little due to the mission-for-hire nature of shinobi.

"Then as a man who has their priorities in order how about we see whose world view is greater." Shimonosuke couldn't help the smile that threatened to split his face.

"We're not children, you old– never mind." Butsuma really wanted to curse this old fool, but he wouldn't. It was too beneath him.

"You're right. We're not children, but today there will be two children fighting to showcase exactly which clan has a better prodigy."

Butsuma couldn't help the smirk that found its way onto his face, "You're saying that a nine year old boy can beat a twelve year old with more battle field experience than the years said nine year old has lived?"

Butsuma picked up a random scroll, flipped it once before catching it and then said, "He's eight actually. And yes, I wholeheartedly believe Naruto can beat your son any day."

These fools. They really had no idea how special Hashirama was. He wouldn't have taken such a significant amount of time away from his clan just to personally research a possible kekkei genkai if he didn't find it valuable. He wasn't truly forthcoming in his meeting with his _precious_ cousins. Every clan had its secrets, and one of theirs was just how special Hashirama was.

He would show them all the error of looking down on his- no, the Senju clan's philosophy of making sure that you took every advantage you got in order to advance your cause. Hashirama would champion his ideology whether he liked it or not.

"Fine."

A victorious smirk found its way onto Shimonosuke's face once again, "Whoever wins between Hashirama, who I'm sure you've had a hand in training, and Naruto, who I've had a hand in training, will decide exactly who has the correct world view. Senju or Uzumaki."

Oh, this was going to be interesting.

* * *

The sun shone through the windows of the great Uzumaki compound to signal yet another morning on the peaceful island that a large part of the world's red head populace called home. Hashirama was already up at this point. He was sure all of his siblings and father were as well. Sleeping was a luxury shinobi could rarely afford, especially on the mainland.

Hashirama was sitting on his futon, cross-legged, and let his mind wander. Why his father had brought him and his siblings to this lovely island, he did not know. He was not going to complain about it though. Being here was fun, even though they had only been here for less than twenty four hours.

The people, the few that he had interacted with, were really nice. The saying that they were all very mellow rang true. These people were unlike mainlanders who would be at ease with seeing you scowl more than seeing you smile. On the mainland, if someone did smile at you it meant that they were stronger than you, or at least believed themselves to be, and that they were going to kill you. Hashirama had come across a few of these types, and they were all quickly proven wrong.

They had looked down on him because of his age and he made sure that they regret it. It was not nice, not one bit, but it was how you ensured your existence where he came from. Right now, on this peaceful island that had never seen war in what he guessed was forever, these people's smiles were genuine. They did not want to kill him or his family. In fact, they were family.

Which made the next bit of business weird, really.

His spar with Naruto. For some reason he had a feeling that this was not just some ordinary spar where nothing of great value was lost. He had a feeling that it meant something to someone. Not to him, or Naruto. He could tell. He had been alive for near half of the expected life expectancy of their era. This helped him cultivate a sixth sense for danger and a seventh sense for reading the environment.

Naruto was a weird kid. He seemed like someone that had a good head on his shoulders. He was strong for his age. Almost reminding Hashirama of how strong he was when he was eight, possibly nine. Either way, their spar would be interesting.

The thing that made him weird was how he interacted with people. With Mito, Ginrei or any of the people that served the Uzumaki clan, he was nice, smiled a lot and was quite pleasant. Whenever someone that wasn't any of the aforementioned people tried to strike up a conversation, he quickly shot it down with quick answers that left little to no room to ask a few more.

It was almost like he had two personalities. At first Hashirama thought that this was due to them not being his clan members, but he quickly realised that this line of thinking was wrong. He went from smiling when he was talking with Mito to unreadable when Jin, his clan head, said something to him.

Maybe he had trust issues? Or it might be something deeper?

"Hashirama-sama." a feminine voice called out, getting Hashirama to snap back to reality. It was probably one of the Uzumaki servants that doted on the main family.

"Yes." he answered.

"I've been instructed to get you so that you can join Uzumaki-sama and the rest of your family for breakfast."

Hashirama did not say anything. He instead walked over to the door, slid it open, and was greeted by the sight of a young woman with brown hair tied into two small pig-tails. She looked to be in her early twenties.

Upon seeing Hashirama, the young woman bowed and turned her body simultaneously, lifting her arm up and pointing it in the general direction of the eating area where breakfast was to be served.

"Right this way, Hashirama-sama."

Hashirama just nodded his head and walked past her. After a few steps he said, "There's no need to be so formal with me."

The young woman stood up and looked at the young, possible future clan head with a raised eyebrow. It was common amongst Uzumaki for them to not want to be referred to in honorifics, they were a generally very laid back bunch. She did not think that it would extend to those outside of the clan as well. From what she expected of those from other clans, they were pretty cut-throat. That was why her parents had moved to Uzu no Kuni many years ago. To escape all of the lousy clans and hang out with the cool one, or so her uncle had eloquently put it when he told her their family's story.

It was also why she had no problem serving the Uzumaki clan.

* * *

Mito was currently kneeling down at the breakfast table, with Tobirama to her right and Tōka on the left. Opposite them knelt Itama and his father. The maids that served the Uzumaki were currently laying food for everyone to eat that morning. Itama and his father were exchanging words in such a quiet manner that Mito couldn't here a thing.

"Hey." Mito's attention was grabbed by Tōka.

"Yes?" Mito gave her attention to the girl on her left.

"What's the deal with...what's-his-name, Naruto?" Tōka had a slightly unsure look on her face, not sure if she got the blonde haired Uzumaki's name correctly.

"Yes, Naruto." Mito clarified for the only other girl around her age in the room,"What about him?"

"Is he really, um...one of you guys?" Tōka was unsure of how to word her question as she didn't want to offend these playing host to her.

"One of us?" Mito asked, noticing that Tobirama was also paying attention to their conversation.

"Yes. You know...is he an Uzumaki?"

"Oh..." Mito had a small smile on her face as she understood why Tōka was asking her such a question, "Yes, he is. It's just that he's the first one to ever be born without red hair."

"How did that come about?" Tobirama decided to jump into the conversation as well.

"Huh?" was Mito's intelligent reply.

"I mean, how come he is blonde unlike the rest of you who are red heads?" Tobirama clarified.

"His father is blonde."

"Then he must be a very powerful man to be have genes that can suppress the usually very dominant Uzumaki red." Tobirama concluded.

"Uh...what are genes?" a very confused Mito tilted her head sideways.

Every Senju at the table heard her question and looked at her like she had grown a second head, except for Butsuma. He was too-proud a warrior for such a ridiculous look to find itself on his face. If he was a lesser man, maybe. But he was the leader of the most powerful clan in the world, and as such he had to act like it. Although, he did look at the Uzumaki heiress questioningly.

Gene was not a really hard word to grasp. It was only four letters.

"Genes, Mito, are basically what make you who you are." Naruto's voice rang from the entrance of the eating area.

"Oh, I see." was Mito's intelligent reply. Mito was not startled by Naruto's appearance like the other kids were. She had sensed him walking down the hallway, talking to a cook about something, before coming here.

"And to answer your question, Tobirama-san," Naruto said coolly as he walked passed Tōka, "My father is a civilian."

"Oh, I see." was all Tobirama said before he went back to doing what he had been before the conversation had even started, which was thinking about whatever meandered into his head.

Naruto greeted the everyone with a bow and a formal _good morning_ before he made his way to the table, went on his knees next to Itama and kept quite.

Mito and Tōka continued their conversation while they waited for Ginrei and Jin to make their way over to the eating area, which they did after only a few minutes. Both men entered the room in a very brisk manner, tilting their head slightly at everybody that was gathered at the table, before taking their respective seats at the head of the table – Jin, and at the foot of the table, Ginrei.

Hashirama was the last to get there, the brown haired boy looked sheepish as he looked at everyone that was gathered within the room and said, "Um, sorry everyone. I, uh, kind of got lost."

Itama stifled a giggle while Tobirama just shook his head in an exasperated manner.

'When will you stop being such an idiot, brother.' Tobirama thought to himself.

"It's okay Hashirama-kun. Sit down." Ginrei said, pointing at a spot on the table next to Tōka, which Hashirama dutifully took.

The group ate together peacefully, although the kids could tell that there was some sort of hostility in the air. Who it was aimed at and who it was from, they had no idea.

* * *

The moment had finally arrived. The big fight/spar was finally upon them. Naruto and Hashirama stood across each other in a clearing that had a lot of trees. The other mainlanders and the main Uzumaki family were in attendance as well, standing quite a distance away from the two combatants. Shimonosuke, who was chosen as the main overseer of this fight was standing at the centre of the calm before the storm.

While everyone else was wearing casual clothing such as kimono and loose shirts worn under armour – sans armour, the two boys that were about to face off were wearing armour. For Hashirama it was the armour he wore yesterday on the day of his arrival, while for Naruto it was a first for him wearing armour for a fight.

He had always worn gi in training, and as such it felt very weird to him. The armour was a dull grey, accompanied by black pants, a long-sleeved shirt along with black sandals. Wrapped around his hands were bandages that started at his forearm and went down to his fingers, stopping halfway through.

Around both boys' heads were white cloths that had their clan's insignia. A sign that they were recognised by their respective clans as true shinobi.

"Alright boys, here are the rules put forth for this spar. Number one: No killing or maiming. This is supposed to be a friendly competition between two clans that like each other, not enemies. Got it?" Shimonosuke had a no nonsense look sent to both boys, who nodded their heads.

"Good. Number two, this one comes as a by-product of number one: No high level Jutsu of any kind, be it nin, tai, gen, fūin or anything else in between."

Another nod from both boys.

"Good. Now hand all lethal weapons excluding kunai and shuriken. Those are allowed."

Both boys dug their hands into their respective pouches, with Hashirama pulling out a scroll of average size and Naruto pulling out a yo-yo. This got a few raised eyebrows from the entire Senju family, Hashirama included.

The boys handed their 'weapons' over to Shimonosuke, who took them and stuffed them in his pockets.

"Alright," the old Uzumaki Ninjutsu specialist said, rubbing his hands together rapidly, "As soon as I leave your sight…let the fight begin!" and then he was gone.

"Suiton: Teppōdama (Water Release: Gunshot)!"

A swirling ball of water found itself being hurled at Hashirama's face at point blank range.

' _What a shrewd tactic_.' Hashirama thought as he dodged the attack, ducking underneath it and surprising Naruto. This was a tactic he'd come up with to deal with much more experienced combatants. Hit them hard and fast. Make sure that they can't get up. Step one was a ball of water to the face.

Off to the sidelines Butsuma looked at Jin and asked, "How was he able to perform that jutsu so efficiently? It should be impossible for someone his age."

Seeing an eight year old perform an elemental jutsu seal-less was a rarity. Butsuma was sure that not even he could do that at age eight. Looking at Jin as he kept his eyes trained on the blonde Uzumaki fighting his son, back-pedalling as he blocked a series of blows from Hashirama, Butsuma could not help but wonder what else the boy could do.

"The boy is a genius." was all Jin said, letting Butsuma figure out what he really wanted to say. _I ain't saying shit._

Back on the battlefield, Hashirama was keeping things at a close quarters, making sure that Naruto did not get any breathing room. Punch after punch he threw at the younger boy, watching him block, parry or dodge, before a quick counter was launched that Hashirama easily turned on its head. The latest one was jab to the chest, which was pointless really if Hashirama were honest because his armour could handle it well.

Regardless, he grabbed the offending wrist, used it to pull Naruto in before he smashed his fist into the other boy's face. Naruto stumbled backwards, feeling his brain rattle within the confines of his skull, before an uppercut sent him flying backwards into the air. He was seeing stars.

As soon as his body hit the ground a shadow loomed over him. Thinking quickly, he rolled backwards just as Hashirama's feet hit the ground, cratering it. After getting to his feet Naruto realised that his only saving grace would be space. He needed space to think. He wasn't good when it came to thinking on the spot. He was a planner that needed time.

Spitting out a glob of water in the quickly advancing Hashirama's direction, the boy ducked his head to the side, letting the attack sail past him harmlessly. Naruto wanted to internally curse as he continued to back-pedal while shooting out more and more globs of water, which Hashirama continued to dodge with ease.

Naruto continued his water assault while moving backwards, taking Hashirama around a tree, then another, and another, all while not relenting with his water assault. A normal eight year old would have already fainted from chakra exhaustion from spitting out so much chakra produced water, but Naruto was not a normal eight year old, even among shinobi. He was an Uzumaki. If there was one thing that the Uzumaki clan were well known for besides their unparalleled talent to Fūinjutsu, it was that they were chakra monsters.

Hashirama was becoming bored with this game that Naruto was playing. Taking him around all of these trees was becoming increasingly annoying. The part that annoyed Hashirama the most was that he was allowing all this to happen. The forest was _his_ domain. He knew that with most shinobi, if they cornered themselves in a forest against him, they would be dead already. So why was he allowing Naruto the opportunity to live passed this mistake. No one else did.

And then something wet hit him, right against his temple. It was a water ball, that much he was sure of. What he was not sure of, as he rolled to the side thanks to the impact of the ball against his head, was how he was hit from the side when Naruto was running in front of-

The Naruto that he had kept his eyes on was no more. He had vanished into thin air the second the ball that him disoriented him. As he looked up, he saw that he was all alone in the forest, Naruto no longer anywhere in sight.

Quickly bringing his hands up to form the ram seal, Hashirama disrupted his own chakra flow for a second, releasing the Genjutsu that Naruto had placed on him in order to get away from him. Now he was standing in a dense forest all by himself. Naruto had taken that moment of respite to escape from him.

It was okay though, at least he could take solace in the fact that they were in a forest full of fully formed trees, and in this environment Hashirama knew that he was king.

Bringing his hands together to form the snake seal, Hashirama sank to the ground in less than two seconds, completely disappearing from the world.

* * *

With the clan heads

While Naruto and Hashirama were busy beating each other black and blue, the clan heads and their progeny simply stood still and waited. And waited. And waited.

"How long will they take in there?" an impatient Mito asked.

While Tobirama was a lot like his father in regards to him being of the understanding that Shinobi should not reveal their emotions, even his impatience was beginning to show. Tōka was impassive as she just kept her eyes trained on any form of movement happening within the forest, while all Itama did was sit down and take out a piece of candy. It quickly went into his mouth.

"As long as they have to." Jin answered his daughter, "So long as they don't maim or kill each other, everything will be fine."

Plus Shimonosuke was there to make sure that they did not go overboard. Kami knows how spars can escalate to dangerous levels really quickly.

* * *

With Naruto

Naruto was crouching on a branch, reviewing their entire fight so far. Hashirama was a hard hitter. A really hard hitter. If he had not been getting his clock cleaned by Jin every other day, then he would be feeling a whole lot worse. He was definitely starting to think that Jin's torture sessions (ala training) were paying off. That last uppercut would have made him black out all of those months ago.

Another thing he could take solace in was the fact that Hashirama was not fast than he was, even when he ran backwards. Jin was definitely a bastard but when it came to training he did not mess around. Naruto could definitely see the fruits of his torturous labour.

The final thing that he took solace in was how Hashirama was not really good at spotting Genjutsu. Maybe he was, but Naruto wouldn't know. Most shinobi tended to use extravagant methods when utilising Genjutsu, thus ruining their very own illusions.

If you're a ninja that is known to have low levels of chakra, then suddenly making it rain fire is a little too out of your element. If you're a ninja that is known for using water when fighting then it isn't totally infeasible when you suddenly summon up water to attack from the side. Totally believable.

It's that subtlety, that understanding, that makes the difference between someone that sucks at spotting and using Genjutsu and someone that is awesome at it. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't a good user of Genjutsu. Most Uzumaki were not. The fact that he could use one, as weak as it was, was a miracle on its own.

Whatever else he had to think about was interrupted by a shift just below him. The branch that he had been crouching on, hiding away from Hashirama suddenly contorted with the flexibility of a python. A really fast python. Luckily for Naruto, he was faster than an animated branch. Quickly substituting himself with a broken twig lying on the ground, Naruto found himself staring up at Hashirama as he emerged from the branch that he was on just a few seconds ago like a spectre.

"I almost had you." Hashirama stated with a smile on his face, looking down at Naruto.

"What in the world is that?" Naruto asked, pointing at Hashirama.

"What is what?"

"That thing that you did. Moving the tree. I didn't know anyone could do that." and he honestly did not. Well colour him surprised because Hashirama was doing it.

"It's my kekkei genkai." was all Hashirama said. When it was clear that he was not going to say anything else, Naruto simply shook his head in disbelief.

"And here I thought bringing you in here was going to be an advantage to me."

Hashirama just shrugged.

"Oh well." Naruto said nonchalantly. He dug his hand into his lonesome holster and retrieved a kunai. What Hashirama noted was how Naruto did not hold it in a reverse grip like most combatants do when they are going to use the kunai as a close-quarters weapon, meaning that Naruto was going to actually try and throw it at him.

The distance between them would make such a throw absurd. Hashirama knew he was nowhere near being the fastest shinobi alive, but he knew that he could dodge the kunai without much effort. Surely Naruto knew that thanks to how he was able to dodge the balls of water he spat at him at a much closer distance than the one he wanted to throw the kunai from.

Without disappointing Hashirama, Naruto threw the kunai at the Senju boy, who plucked it out of the just as quickly as it had been thrown.

"Really?" was all Hashirama said, flashing the kunai up at Naruto.

Naruto did not say anything, simply taking out another one and throwing it again'. Hashirama would have caught this one as well had it not been for the wire he saw attached to the rope. He quickly threw the kunai he had in his possession back at Naruto, aiming for the wire attaching his kunai to him.

Naruto simply sidestepped the attempt while his kunai sailed passed Hashirama's face, with the older boy not even dodging.

' _Perhaps I overestimated him._ ' was Hashirama's first thought as Naruto pulled his kunai back with his wire.

"Is that the best you can do?" Hashirama's face held a bit of a scowl to it.

Naruto saw this and smirked. His plan was coming along well, "No. This is…"

* * *

With the others

Naruto and Hashirama had been gone for more than five minutes now, and it was starting to get aggravating, even for the adults. They wanted to see what both boys could do, but they could not. They knew that they could easily follow the battle if they wanted to by simply keeping pace with them from a distance. Unfortunately, that would disrupt the flow of the fight, as they would both have their senses misfiring as they would judge all of the other adults as if they were combatants and would probably direct a few attacks their way thinking that it was the other boy that they wanted to defeat.

BOOM!

That quickly got everybody's attention, getting Mito and Itama to sit up from the ground that they had been sitting on and having a light conversation with each other on and focus. Another boom. And another.

After three more booms, which the adults had associated with falling trees as there was the unmistakable creek that came before the resounding crashing boom of the tree falling to meet the earth.

Hashirama came flying out of the tree line backwards. He was airborne for three seconds, before coming back down to meet soft grass feet first. He had a few cuts littering his body. His armour was dented around the abdomen and his Senju head cloth had disappeared.

Whatever had happened within the confines of the forest had turned the tide of the fight.

Naruto came shooting out of the tree line a few seconds later, holding onto a giant kunai that was actually taller than he was by quite a bit. He landed on the ground and looked at Hashirama. He stuffed his giant kunai point-first into the ground, getting raised eyebrows and shocked expressions from all of those watching, except Mito.

"Okay… " Hashirama said, clearly as shocked as everyone else that was not Uzumaki Mito, "What the fuck is that?"

He had never seen a kunai that big. Ever.

Shuriken? Sure, he had seen a few shuriken that were that size. There was a clan that specialised in making giant shuriken. Kunai on the other hand were something else entirely.

"Like seriously," he questioned, "How?"

He was not the only one that wanted to know.

"A shinobi never reveals their tricks." Naruto said with a smirk on his face.

Off to the sidelines, Jin, Butsuma, Tobirama and Ginrei all noted something that was out of place with this kunai, besides its size. While it looked like a regular kunai, for the most part, there was one key difference. The handle, just before the giant ring that sat an entire head above Naruto, had Fūinjutsu markings.

From what Ginrei could ascertain from the markings, it was a growth seal. A seal meant to enlarge certain things. They had no real practical use as you could not use them on anything that was animate. Animals and plant life that were forced to grow into larger forms of themselves tended to die whilst growing. The physical trauma was too much for any living thing to contain.

"Father," Tobirama said, "What sort of seal is that?"

"Ask them." Butsuma said, hiking his thumb in Ginrei and Jin's direction.

"It's a growth seal." Mito stated, getting Tobirama to look at her. Hashirama heard her as well, but chose not to look in her general direction, because his fight was still on.

"Growth seal?" Tobirama inquired, as if he were tasting something in his mouth and he could not quite figure out what it tasted like, "What does it do? Grow stuff."

"If by grow stuff you mean make things bigger, then yes. That is exactly what it does." Mito answered, not taking her eyes off of her best friend.

Just looking at him stare down the much older Hashirama was awe inspiring. She wanted to be like that one day.

* * *

Back with Hashirama, he was staring intently at Naruto's giant kunai, which at first glance seemed harmless, for a kunai, due to its size; but Naruto somehow knew how to use it practically in battle. The cuts on his body and the dent on his armour were enough to support that claim.

"Growth seal, huh?" Hashirama said, trying to buy time, "Never heard of it."

"Yeah. I don't suppose anyone outside of our clan would know it." Naruto said, "After all, it was created to counter the Akimichi clan when they started throwing around giant body parts as part of their main fighting style almost two hundred years ago."

"Two hundred years ago? Is that when the Baika no Jutsu was invented?" Hashirama asked, slightly shocked at the level of detail with which Naruto knew things.

Naruto just nodded, "Unfortunately for us, the seal is useless on living things, unless if they can survive through the pain of having everything within them suddenly expanded to massive proportions." He then shrugged, "Honestly, how the Akimichi clan do it, I have no idea."

Quickly blurring his hands through different seals Hashirama slammed his hands on the ground and said, "Doton: Tsuchi Douyou Hira no Jutsu (Earth Release: Earth Shaking Palm Technique)."

The dirt that was in front of Hashirama suddenly found itself being lifted off into the air and flying in Naruto's general direction. The pieces of earth were not big, but they would be painful if they hit, which was why Naruto ducked behind the giant kunai he made, back first.

The kunai was pelted with a repeated barrage of the small chunks of earth for a few seconds, before it all stopped just as soon as a shadow loomed over Naruto. Hashirama's feet found nothing but earth once again as Naruto rolled out of the way, pulling himself up and yanking his hand– pulling on the string that was attached to his kunai.

Hashirama spun out of the kunai's way, and watched as it became smaller in the two seconds it took to fly back into Naruto's possession. Naruto let go of the kunai, letting it dangle on the string it was attached to, before he started spinning it rapidly, twirling it around his body in different patterns for a few seconds, before he let it loose, flying towards Hashirama rapidly.

Naruto's assault was something that Hashirama had expected, having dealt with the weird fighting style before when they were in the forest; and just like before he was able to dodge the first few strikes really quickly, before the darn thing was retracted and then sent flying by an ox kick to the ring, sending it back at Hashirama at full speed.

The style was strange, looking like a mixture between someone using a kusarigama and a yo-…

'Oh, hell. Now it makes sense.' Hashirama thought as he rushed forward, looking to get past the kunai, cut the string it was attached to, and make sure that he brought the battle back to a close quarters encounter. The yo-yo that Naruto had earlier was used in this manner. He probably made it gigantic in order to flatten people with it.

Hashirama's plan was an admirable one, but the kunai was yanked back as soon as it flew past his head. Already expecting this to be done, Hashirama cut the cord the string was attached to but it was too late.

"Look out!" Itama's panic-stricken voice was his only salvation as a last second backwards glance allowed him to see the kunai enlarging to its previous gigantic size, now with the added benefit of having the momentum of a small, regular-sized kunai.

Hashirama hit the deck as quickly as he could, allowing the rouge kunai to sail past him and meet its master. Naruto, who was already closing the distance between himself and Hashirama, used his smaller stature to good effect and just slid underneath the kunai, not really losing much momentum, and quickly righted himself and closed the distance between he and his opponent.

Naruto threw a right-footed kick a Hashirama, who was on one knee, but it was caught in his left palm. Stuck in an awkward position, Naruto was pulled in by Hashirama as he rose up and delivered a solid punch to his stomach. The armour took up most of the blow, but it was still strong enough to force the oxygen out of Naruto.

Hashirama's punches were absurdly hard hitting as far as Naruto was concerned.

Pulling himself back, Hashirama- still holding onto Naruto's leg- sent a punch flying at Naruto's face, but the blonde boy caught it with his open palm. Hashirama tried to move, but Naruto had a surprisingly firm grip. This lead him to make the only logical conclusion. He was stuck.

So there they were, stuck in a deadlock. Hashirama's left arm was holding Naruto's right leg, while Naruto's left palm kept Hashirama's right fist in check.

"Heh," a smirk found its way onto Hashirama's face, "You know, despite having figured out that you are strong, I still held back against you. A mistake I don't plan on repeating."

As soon as he was done saying that, a kunai found itself placed on Naruto's neck.

'A clone?' Naruto thought, panic dancing across his features.

"I made it while you were ducking behind your kunai." Hashirama explained.

There was a moment of silence between the two, as Naruto simply stared Hashirama down. After it was all said and done however, he just took a deep breath and said, "You know, I have to apologise as well."

This drew a tilted head out of Hashirama.

"I also underestimated you." Naruto said, before he looked at his hand that was holding Hashirama's fist back. Hashirama noticed this and looked at the two connected hands as well.

"What the-?" Hashirama began, shocked by what he was seeing.

"They say you shouldn't look into the eyes of an Uchiha when you do battle with them." Naruto spoke with conviction, "I may just be a beginner at Fūinjutsu, but I can tell you this…" then his eyes held a cold steely detachment to them, "Never let an Uzumaki, even a beginner, lay a hand on you."

Why did he say this? Well, Hashirama's right hand current hand a seal spread out on it. Just his hand. It was a seal that most shinobi, even those that knew fuck-all about Fūinjutsu knew all too well.

It was the seal found on an explosive tag.

"H-how?" Hashirama's tone carried a hint of panic in it. He wanted to know how Naruto placed the seal on him.

"Well, I'm not much for flashy techniques." Naruto explained, "I'm more of a practical kind of guy. While most people would find flashy ways to do the simplest of tasks, I tend to just keep it all minimal. Such as in the case of how I applied this seal."

Unfortunately for Hashirama, Naruto was not going to divulge much on how his technique works. Even if was simple. All Naruto did was take his understanding of what Fūinjutsu was at a grass roots level- written universal code for the hand seals one uses in Ninjutsu- and just applied it in a way no one had ever thought of.

He wrote the seals, both the growth seal and the explosive tag's seal on to his hands. Each one took up a different finger. All he had to do when he was in combat was simply touch someone, and the seal was on them. It was how he had cheated the Teppōdama as well. All he did was inscribe the jutsu's formula onto his chest, and he could fire as many globs of water as he wanted.

This way of 'cheating' Fūinjutsu came with a slight hiccup. In the case of actual ninjutsu, he had to learn them first, and then only would he be able to use them in the manner he does. With Fūinjutsu it was slightly different, due to human flesh having different properties to exploding tags, he had to rewrite the entire seal, changing it to react to skin and not paper, and to also include a shrinkage seal, which compressed the seal into a few squiggly lines of Fūinjutsu. Not the overly complex version that people would not be able to recognise.

While the explosive seal was different from the regular, much easier to make version found on tags, it still looked pretty much the same when compressed.

Jutsu that could be utilised without hand seals… it was very convenient.

* * *

The spar was ended with a draw. Both Naruto and Hashirama agreed that it was a fair outcome, given how the fight had played out. Hashirama was very impressed with Naruto. He was strong, not as strong as Hashirama was at his age, but he was smarter. Very much so.

As the Senju and Uzumaki contingent headed back to the main family's home, the adults walked together while the kids kept to themselves, with the battle being relived by both parties.

"My favourite part was when nii-san thought that he had won," Itama said animatedly, hands flying all over the show, "Only for Naruto to be like," then he imitated Naruto holding Hashirama's fist, sans fist, "You never touch an Uzumaki." Then he broke the pose, "That was _so_ cool!"

Naruto definitely had a fan in Itama now. Also, Naruto was pretty sure he heard a _suck it, Butsuma_ from Shimonosuke…nope, he was probably imagining things. Why would he say something so crude to a clan head?

"Hey, whose side are you on?" Hashirama shouted at his little brother, feeling betrayed with him seemingly finding Naruto cooler if he was to read further into his statement than what was said.

Itama opened his mouth to answer, but then quickly shut it. He shook his head furiously, telling Hashirama he was not going to say anything. To Hashirama though, he might as well have because no answer meant that Itama supported Naruto.

"No fair." Hashirama hand comical tears streaming down his face, "My own brother likes you better than me, Naruto."

"I don't blame Itama for doing so Hashirama." Tōka chimed in from the side, "You beat him up all the time when you train together, so it's no wonder you would lose his support."

"Whaaaaaat…" Hashirama had the facial expression and mannerisms of a fish, as he rapidly looked around for support. Itama said nothing, keeping his face stony and staring forward. Tōka just smiled and shook her head. Tobirama was cold, as usual. Although he did were a small smile on his face for some reason. A reason that Hashirama deduced quickly.

"What!? Don't tell me you supported Naruto too, Tobi."

Tobirama just calmly looked at his brother for all of three seconds, before he said, "I have no idea what you are talking about." smile still in place.

"Noooooo!" Hashirama shouted comically to the heavens, getting a round of laughter from everyone, Naruto included.

As the house they were walking towards came up on the horizon, Naruto couldn't help but think to himself about how nice the Senju kids were. Mainly Itama and Hashirama. Tobirama and Tōka…not so much. They were just too quiet to get a read on.

Still though, he had a feeling he was going to enjoy the few days they were going to spend together.

* * *

 **To be continued**

 **Whew, done. That was tiring. Seriously. I tried really hard to put this chapter together as quickly as I could. It was very hard. I realised something with Naruto as I wrote the chapter. He was perfect. Too perfect for my liking. As such, I decided to change his interactions with people just a little bit.**

 **He won't be an antisocial prick or anything, but he won't be nice to you until he gets to know you. If you noticed the change in his behaviour from the previous chapter to this chapter, this was the reason why.**

 **With this chapter's conclusion, we are now two or three chapters away from where the story will really take off. I can't wait to dish it all out for you guys.**

 **Anyway, enough about that. I really enjoyed putting together that fight. If you hafn't figured it out yet, it was all a vehicle to allow me to showcase Naruto's fighting style and his techniques at this point. Next chapter you'll see more combat and more Uzumaki shinobi than you know what to do with.**

 **That's all for now, let me know what you think. As always, take care.**

 **I'm out of this bitch.**


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